The presence of Harlequin duck Histrionicus histrionicus (Linnaeus 1758) in the Middle Pleistocene of Italy

• Main Authors: PAVIA, Marco, C. Bedetti
• Other Authors: M. Pavia
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2318/136241

A nearly complete coracoid of Harlequin Duck Histrionicus histrionicus (Linnaeus 1758) is described from the Middle Pleistocene of Casal Selce (Rome, Central Italy). The fossil specimen is verywell preserved and itsmorphology and dimensions are perfectly compatiblewith those ofmodern HarlequinDuck, and differ fromother candidate diving ducks. This record represents the first European fossil of this species, previously recorded as fossil only in North America, and one of the few European documented records of wild-origin bird outside Iceland, where the species is sedentary.