New anhingid (Aves, Suliformes) from the middle Miocene of Río Negro province, Patagonia, Argentina

Abstract

During the Miocene in South America, the family Anhingidae constitutes one of the most conspicuous faunal elements. However, the anhingid record from Patagonia is still sparse. The aim of the present contribution is to describe a new species of Macranhinga coming from Colloncuran levels (early middle Miocene) in Río Negro province, north-central Patagonia (Argentina). The new species is represented by an incomplete proximal end of a tarsometatarsus, distal end of a tibiotarsus, and distal end of a humerus. The phylogenetic relationships of the new species within Macranhinga remains unresolved. South American Neogene anhingids share a number of features that suggest they may belong to a monophyletic clade within this family. Anhingid records from the Miocene of Patagonia indicate that the diversity of this family was far more diverse (at least 4 different species) than currently understood, and was possible comparable to that shown by Miocene beds of Mesopotamian in Argentina and Acre in Brazil.

http://www.zoobang.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3FC228E8-4E2C-4DFD-AB91-79F32269CA98

Keywords:

• Anhingidae
• Macranhinga
• Neogene
• South America
• Patagonia

Acknowledgements

We especially thank M. Reguero (MLP), D. Rubilar-Rogers (SGO), A. Rinderknecht (MNHN) and A. Kramarz (MACN) for their help during the revision of the palaeontological collections. We also thank S. Bogan (FHN), H. Alvarenga (MHNT), C. Kopuchian, D. Lijtmaer, P. Tubaro, and Y. Davies (MACN) for allowing to study the osteological collections under their care. We specially thank J.I. Noriega and T. Worthy for their comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article; also, this last author gave us photographs of the holotype of Anhinga walterbolesi. Richard Hulbert, B. MacFadden and S. Moran (Florida Museum of Natural History) for providing us with photos of Anhinga beckeri. Sergio Soto-Acuña provided photographs and measurements of one material of Meganhinga chilensis (humerus SGO-PV 22212b). We thank G. Dyke (Editor in Chief), and two anonymous reviewers which helped improve this manuscript. This study was granted by CONICET doctoral and postdoctoral scholarship (J.M. Diederle).