An unexpected large Crested Tinamou (Eudromia, Tinamidae, Aves) near to Last Glacial Maximum (MIS 2, late Pleistocene) of the Argentine Pampas.

CENIZO, M. M.; NORIEGA, I.; DIEDERLE, J; SOIBELZON, E.; SOIBELZON, L. H.; RODRIGUEZ, S.; BEILINSON, E.

Historical Biology

Taylor & Francis Group

Año: 2018

0891-2963

A large nearly complete specimen of a Crested Tinamou (Eudromia, Tinamidae, Aves) is described. It wascollected at ?Nicolás Vignogna III? Quarry in Marcos Paz County (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina),coming from near the top of a succession assigned to the Lujanian Stage. Radiocarbon dates constrainthe age of the fossil bearing lithosome to the late Pleistocene ? early Holocene, including the completegeochronological interval assigned to MIS 2. The new fossil specimen of Eudromia from Marcos Pazexceeds the size range of living species of the genus; but it is osteologically almost indistinguishablefrom them. Based on the lack of conclusive morphological and metrical differences with modernEudromia spp., its specific status is not definitely ascertained in this contribution, being considered asa probable large morph of E. elegans. Crested tinamous are inhabitants of open and xeric environmentswith warm temperate to cold temperate climatic conditions. The fossil location is more than 250 kmeast of the eastern distributional limit of the nearest extant species. This geographical outlier could betentatively associated with the expansion of arid or semiarid paleoenvironments typical of the Centralor Patagonian domains over the temperate Pampean grasslands during the MIS 2 times.