First record of a pelican (aves: pelecaniformes: pelecanidae) from the Paraná Formation (late Miocene), Entre Ríos Province, Argentina.

JORGE IGNACIO NORIEGA; CENIZO, MARCOS; DIEGO BRANDONI; LEANDRO MARTÍN PÉREZ; DAVID ERIC TINEO; PAULA BONA; GOTTARDI, M. GRISELDA

Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires

Simposio; VI Simposio del Mioceno-Pleistoceno del Centro y Noroeste de Argentina; 2021

ASOCIACIÓN PALEONTOLÓGICA ARGENTINA

Pelicans are waterbirds with a long and heavy bill endowed with a large distensible pouch. They have a worldwide distribution, excepting Antarctica, from tropical to warm temperate regions, inhabiting coastal and inland open water environments. Pelecanidae comprises eight living species in the single genus Pelecanus, with a poor paleontological record dating back to the late Eocene of Egypt (Eopelecanus aegyptiacus). Other fossil pelicans are known from the Oligocene of France (Pelecanus sp.) and from the Miocene of Europe (Miopelecanus spp.), Australia (Pelecanus tirarensis), and Costa Rica (Pelecanus sp.). Pelecanus schreiberi is known from the Pliocene of North America. In South America, only Pelecanus sp. is recorded from the late Miocene of Peru. The material (CICYTTP-PV-A-3-277) comes from the upper sandstones marine beds of the Paraná Formation, outcropping at Cerro La Matanza locality (32°35′51″S-60°11′22″W) in Victoria City, Entre Ríos Province. It consists in a nearly complete pelvis plus the synsacrum. Its shape and overall proportions are similar to those of Pelecanus spp., exhibiting the following characters: alae preacetabulares ilii oriented in a markedly horizontal plane; cristae iliacae dorsales fused with crista spinosa synsacralis; corpora vertebrarum of cranial synsacrum large, cylindrical and ventrally aligned in a horizontal plane; three of the caudalmost thoracic vertebrae fused with synsacrum through ossified tendons along the processus spinosi and transversi. However, the contours of the alae preacetabulares ilii laterally curved and the alae postcetabulares ilii enlarged caudally, and the orientation of the antitrochanter preliminarily precludes its assignment to any of the extant species of Pelecanus compared.