An avian femur from the Late Cretaceous of Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula: removing the record of cursorial landbirds from the Mesozoic of Antarctica
In 2006, a partial avian femur (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM) 78247) from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Sandwich Bluff Member of the López de Bertodano Formation of Sandwich Bluff on Vega Island of the northern Antarctic Peninsula was briefly reported as that of a cariami...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6626523 2023-05-15T13:54:15+02:00 An avian femur from the Late Cretaceous of Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula: removing the record of cursorial landbirds from the Mesozoic of Antarctica West, Abagael R. Torres, Christopher R. Case, Judd A. Clarke, Julia A. O'Connor, Patrick M. Lamanna, Matthew C. 2019-07-10 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6626523/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31333904 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7231 en eng PeerJ Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6626523/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31333904 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7231 © 2019 West et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. CC-BY Biogeography Text 2019 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7231 2019-08-04T00:37:53Z In 2006, a partial avian femur (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM) 78247) from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Sandwich Bluff Member of the López de Bertodano Formation of Sandwich Bluff on Vega Island of the northern Antarctic Peninsula was briefly reported as that of a cariamiform—a clade that includes extant and volant South American species and many extinct flightless and cursorial species. Although other authors have since rejected this taxonomic assignment, SDSM 78247 had never been the subject of a detailed description, hindering a definitive assessment of its affinities. Here we provide the first comprehensive description, illustration, and comparative study of this specimen. Comparison of characters that may be assessed in this femur with those of avian taxa scored in published character matrices refutes the inclusion of SDSM 78247 within Cariamiformes, instead supporting its assignment to a new, as-yet unnamed large-bodied species within the genus Vegavis, and therefore its referral to a clade of semiaquatic anseriforms. Important character states diagnostic of Vegavis + Polarornis include strong craniocaudal bowing of the femoral shaft, the presence of a distinct fossa just proximal to the fibular trochlea, and the broad and flat shape of the patellar sulcus. Referral to Vegavis is based on the presence of a distinctive proximocaudal fossa and distolateral scar. This genus was previously known only from Vegavis iaai, a smaller-bodied taxon from the same locality and stratigraphic unit. Our reassignment of SDSM 78247 to Vegavis sp. removes the record of cariamiform landbirds from the Antarctic Cretaceous. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Vega Island PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Fossa ENVELOPE(9.795,9.795,62.990,62.990) Sandwich Bluff ENVELOPE(-57.569,-57.569,-63.832,-63.832) The Antarctic Vega Island ENVELOPE(-57.500,-57.500,-63.833,-63.833) PeerJ 7 e7231 |
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Open Polar |
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PubMed Central (PMC) |
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English |
topic |
Biogeography |
spellingShingle |
Biogeography West, Abagael R. Torres, Christopher R. Case, Judd A. Clarke, Julia A. O'Connor, Patrick M. Lamanna, Matthew C. An avian femur from the Late Cretaceous of Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula: removing the record of cursorial landbirds from the Mesozoic of Antarctica |
topic_facet |
Biogeography |
description |
In 2006, a partial avian femur (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM) 78247) from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Sandwich Bluff Member of the López de Bertodano Formation of Sandwich Bluff on Vega Island of the northern Antarctic Peninsula was briefly reported as that of a cariamiform—a clade that includes extant and volant South American species and many extinct flightless and cursorial species. Although other authors have since rejected this taxonomic assignment, SDSM 78247 had never been the subject of a detailed description, hindering a definitive assessment of its affinities. Here we provide the first comprehensive description, illustration, and comparative study of this specimen. Comparison of characters that may be assessed in this femur with those of avian taxa scored in published character matrices refutes the inclusion of SDSM 78247 within Cariamiformes, instead supporting its assignment to a new, as-yet unnamed large-bodied species within the genus Vegavis, and therefore its referral to a clade of semiaquatic anseriforms. Important character states diagnostic of Vegavis + Polarornis include strong craniocaudal bowing of the femoral shaft, the presence of a distinct fossa just proximal to the fibular trochlea, and the broad and flat shape of the patellar sulcus. Referral to Vegavis is based on the presence of a distinctive proximocaudal fossa and distolateral scar. This genus was previously known only from Vegavis iaai, a smaller-bodied taxon from the same locality and stratigraphic unit. Our reassignment of SDSM 78247 to Vegavis sp. removes the record of cariamiform landbirds from the Antarctic Cretaceous. |
format |
Text |
author |
West, Abagael R. Torres, Christopher R. Case, Judd A. Clarke, Julia A. O'Connor, Patrick M. Lamanna, Matthew C. |
author_facet |
West, Abagael R. Torres, Christopher R. Case, Judd A. Clarke, Julia A. O'Connor, Patrick M. Lamanna, Matthew C. |
author_sort |
West, Abagael R. |
title |
An avian femur from the Late Cretaceous of Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula: removing the record of cursorial landbirds from the Mesozoic of Antarctica |
title_short |
An avian femur from the Late Cretaceous of Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula: removing the record of cursorial landbirds from the Mesozoic of Antarctica |
title_full |
An avian femur from the Late Cretaceous of Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula: removing the record of cursorial landbirds from the Mesozoic of Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
An avian femur from the Late Cretaceous of Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula: removing the record of cursorial landbirds from the Mesozoic of Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
An avian femur from the Late Cretaceous of Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula: removing the record of cursorial landbirds from the Mesozoic of Antarctica |
title_sort |
avian femur from the late cretaceous of vega island, antarctic peninsula: removing the record of cursorial landbirds from the mesozoic of antarctica |
publisher |
PeerJ Inc. |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6626523/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31333904 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7231 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(9.795,9.795,62.990,62.990) ENVELOPE(-57.569,-57.569,-63.832,-63.832) ENVELOPE(-57.500,-57.500,-63.833,-63.833) |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Fossa Sandwich Bluff The Antarctic Vega Island |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Fossa Sandwich Bluff The Antarctic Vega Island |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Vega Island |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Vega Island |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6626523/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31333904 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7231 |
op_rights |
© 2019 West et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7231 |
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7 |
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e7231 |
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