A revision of the Lari (Aves, Charadriiformes) from the early Miocene of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy (Allier, France)

ABSTRACT

Three species of gull-like birds were described by Milne-Edwards in the 19th century from the early Miocene of Saint-Gérand-le-Puy, France, two of which have been since then moved to the genus Laricola. These fossils are redescribed and revised in the present study. We further describe two new species of the taxon Laricola, L. intermedia, sp. nov., and L. robusta, sp. nov., as well as two species of a new taxon Sternalara, S. minuta and S. milneedwardsi, thus substantially increasing the number of charadriiform taxa known from this locality. To find out how Laricola relates to modern taxa, we performed a phylogenetic analysis of 41 osteological characters, which resulted in Laricola being placed outside of Lariidae, as early representatives of the newly designated group Laromorphae, which encompasses terns, gulls, and skimmers. The results of our analysis have additionally enabled us to evaluate relationships between extant taxa of the Laromorphae.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank C. Meyer (NMB) for facilitating the study of the fossil specimens. We are grateful to R. Allain (MNHN) for his assistance during a visit to the avian fossil collection in MNHN. S. Hertwig and M. Schweizer (Naturhistorisches Museum Bern) provided useful comments on the phylogenetic analysis. M. Weick (NMB) assisted with the preparation of fossil specimens. We thank the Willi Hennig Society for subsidizing the free edition of TNT. A travel grant from Stiftung zur Förderung des Naturhistorischen Museums (Basel, Switzerland) to V.L.D. supported this research. Helpful comments by D. Ksepka (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, U.S.A.), C. Mourer-Chauviré (Université Claude Bernard, Lyon, France), and T. Worthy (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia) improved the manuscript.

Handling editor: Trevor Worthy