A New Species of Auk (Charadriiformes, Pan-Alcidae) from the Miocene of Mexico

[摘要] Abstract. A fossil from the Middle Miocene Rosarito Beach Formation of Baja California represents a previously undescribed, auklet-sized species of wing-propelled diving Pan-Alcidae (Aves, Charadriiformes). This new taxon, Divisulcus demerei, is recognized from the presence of a bifurcated scapulotricipital sulcus of the distal end of the humerus, a potentially neomorphic character within Aves. Additionally, the degree of compression of the humeral shaft of this new species is less than that of other pan-alcids. These characters may represent retention of ancestral character states that are associated with the transition to wing-propelled diving from nondiving Charadriiformes. This discovery provides further information regarding paleodiversity in this clade, extends the geographic range of Miocene pan-alcids, and may represent the oldest record of the clade from the Pacific Ocean basin, as previously reported unambiguous records are from Late Miocene or younger deposits (∼10–1.6 Ma). Moreover, the age of...

[学科分类] 动物科学

[关键词] Divisulcus demerei;fossil seabird;neomorph;paleoclimate;paleodiversity;systematics;wingpropelled divers.