TY - JOUR
T1 - Quercypsitta-like birds from the early eocene of India (Aves, ?Psittaciformes)
AU - Mayr, Gerald
AU - Rana, Rajendra S.
AU - Rose, Kenneth D.
AU - Sahni, Ashok
AU - Kumar, Kishor
AU - Singh, Lachham
AU - Smith, Thierry
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Cécile Mourer-Chauviré for the loan of specimens of Quercypsitta, Sven Tränkner for taking the photographs, and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments that improved the manuscript. We are further grateful to Annelise Folie, Pieter Missiaen, Franc¸ois Gould, Gina McKusick, and Hukam Singh for assisting in the field work, and to personnel of the Gujarat Industrial Power Corporation Ltd. for facilitating our excavations at Vastan Lignite Mine. Field work and research were supported by the National Geographic Society (grants 6868-00, 7938-05, and 8356-07 to K.D.R. and A.S.), the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (ESS/23/Ves092/2000 to R.S.R.), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of India (ES grant 560, 21/EMR-II to A.S.), the Director of the Wa-dia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun, India (to K.K.), and the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (MO/36/011 and MO/36/020 to T.S.).
PY - 2010/3
Y1 - 2010/3
N2 - We report new avian remains from the early Eocene Cambay Formation of Vastan Lignite Mine in western India. Most of the bones belong to the as yet poorly known taxon Vastanavis, of which a new species, V. cambayensis, is described. For the first time, tarsometatarsi of Vastanavis can be identified, which show that this taxon had semi-zygodactyl feet. In overall morphology, Vastanavis closely resembles the species of the Quercypsittidae, which occur in the late Eocene of Europe and are considered stem group representatives of the parrots (Psittaciformes). Several plesiomorphic features indicate, however, that Vastanavis is outside a clade including Quercypsitta and crown group Psittaciformes, and we therefore assign it to a new family, Vastanavidae. Vastanavis corresponds well with an as yet undescribed avian species from the early Eocene London Clay in England, and we conclude that, at least concerning the arboreal taxa, the early Eocene avifauna of India shows some concordances with the much better known one from the early Eocene of Europe. We further describe a distal tarsometatarsus from Vastan Lignite Mine that superficially resembles that of extant New World vultures (Cathartidae), but comes from a roller-sized species.
AB - We report new avian remains from the early Eocene Cambay Formation of Vastan Lignite Mine in western India. Most of the bones belong to the as yet poorly known taxon Vastanavis, of which a new species, V. cambayensis, is described. For the first time, tarsometatarsi of Vastanavis can be identified, which show that this taxon had semi-zygodactyl feet. In overall morphology, Vastanavis closely resembles the species of the Quercypsittidae, which occur in the late Eocene of Europe and are considered stem group representatives of the parrots (Psittaciformes). Several plesiomorphic features indicate, however, that Vastanavis is outside a clade including Quercypsitta and crown group Psittaciformes, and we therefore assign it to a new family, Vastanavidae. Vastanavis corresponds well with an as yet undescribed avian species from the early Eocene London Clay in England, and we conclude that, at least concerning the arboreal taxa, the early Eocene avifauna of India shows some concordances with the much better known one from the early Eocene of Europe. We further describe a distal tarsometatarsus from Vastan Lignite Mine that superficially resembles that of extant New World vultures (Cathartidae), but comes from a roller-sized species.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77952254958&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77952254958&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02724631003617357
DO - 10.1080/02724631003617357
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:77952254958
SN - 0272-4634
VL - 30
SP - 467
EP - 478
JO - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
JF - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
IS - 2
ER -