Unexpected find of a buttonquail (Aves: Charadriiformes: Turnicidae) in the lower Pleistocene of Crimea

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Abstract

Buttonquails (family Turnicidae of the order Charadriiformes) are a morphologically specialized group of small, predominantly tropical birds of open landscapes, extremely poorly represented in the fossil record. The article describes a fragmentary humerus of a buttonquail from the Lower Pleistocene of the Taurida Cave in central Crimea. This is the first find of the family Turnicidae in Eurasia in the chronological interval from the Pliocene through the Middle Pleistocene. This find highlights the limited available information on the taxonomic composition of Early Quaternary Eurasian avifaunas, even at the family level, and also sheds light on the Late Cenozoic evolutionary history of Turnicidae.

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About the authors

N. V. Zelenkov

Borissiak Paleontological institute, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: nzelen@paleo.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow

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2. Fig. 1. Geography of the modern distribution and fossil Pliocene-Quaternary finds of three-finned (Turnicidae): solid fill – the modern area of the family Turnicidae; white circles – previously known Pliocene-Quaternary finds (see text); star – a new Early Pleistocene find Turnix sp. in the Tavrida cave, Central Crimea.

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3. Fig. 2. Distal part of the humerus Turnix sp. from the Lower Pleistocene of the Taurida cave in comparison with the studied and modern Turnicidae: a, d – ex. PIN, No. 5644/1777, Turnix sp.; Tavrida cave, Crimea, Lower Pleistocene; b – Turnicidae gen. indet., ex. National Science and Natural History Museum, Kiev, NMNHU-P Eg‑2–02; location Egorovka‑2, Odessa region, Ukraine; Upper Miocene; c – Turnix tanki Blyth, 1843, archaeological collection of PIN, copies 53-5-1, modern; d – Turnix ocellatus (Scopoli, 1786), copies. National Museum of Natural History, Paris, MNHN 1884-2466, modern; a–g – from the cranial side; d – from the caudal side. Designations: cd – dorsal condyle; cv – ventral condyle; ed – dorsal supracondyle; fb – fossa m. brachialis, ext –distal extension; psd – dorsal supracondylar process.

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