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Article: New data on stiff‐tailed duck evolution and dispersal from a new species of diving duck (Anseriformes: Anatidae: cf. Oxyurinae) from the Miocene High Rock Caldera in north‐west Nevada, USA

Papers in Palaeontology - Cover Image - Volume 2 Part 1
Publication: Papers in Palaeontology
Volume: 2
Part: 1
Publication Date: Febuary 2016
Page(s): 41 58
Author(s): Thomas A. Stidham, and Richard P. Hilton
DOI: 10.1002/spp2.1029
Addition Information

How to Cite

STIDHAM, T.A., HILTON, R.P. 2016. New data on stiff‐tailed duck evolution and dispersal from a new species of diving duck (Anseriformes: Anatidae: cf. Oxyurinae) from the Miocene High Rock Caldera in north‐west Nevada, USA. Papers in Palaeontology, 2, 1, 41-58. DOI: 10.1002/spp2.1029

Author Information

  • Thomas A. Stidham - Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology Beijing China (Email: presbyornis@gmail.com)
  • Richard P. Hilton - Sierra College Department of Earth Sciences and Sierra College Natural History Museum Rocklin CA USA

Publication History

  • Issue published online: 13 February 2016
  • Article first published online: 01 January 1970
  • Manuscript Accepted: 12 August 2015
  • Manuscript Received: 15 June 2015

Funded By

Chinese National Natural Science Foundation. Grant Number: NSFC41472025
Chinese Academy of Sciences. Grant Number: XDB03020501

Online Version Hosted By

Wiley Online Library
Get Article: Wiley Online Library [Pay-to-View Access] |

Abstract

A new species of diving duck from lacustrine deposits inside the middle Miocene High Rock Caldera in north‐west Nevada (USA) appears to be more closely related to the stiff‐tailed ducks Oxyura and Nomonyx than to other Oligocene and Miocene anatid taxa. The new species, Lavadytis pyrenae sp. nov., is represented by 24 fragments of humeri, tibiotarsi, tarsometatarsi, coracoids, a scapula and carpometacarpi, and several of the specimens are from juvenile individuals, indicating that the caldera palaeolake was a breeding site. The humerus has a ‘closed’ non‐pneumatic ventral pneumotricipital fossa, lacks a capital shaft ridge, has a cranial carpal fovea and has a pronounced medial epicondyle on the tibiotarsus. Many of the osteological features present in this new species also occur (convergently) among derived diving duck clades and therefore suggest that this extinct species foraged by diving. This new species’ phylogenetic position close to the extant species in Nomonyx and Oxyura, its middle Miocene age (16.1–14.6 Ma) and its geographical location in North America are consistent with molecular clock analyses placing the origin of the stem leading to Oxyura Nomonyx at approximately 15.9 Ma in the New World. This new species could indicate that the stem of the Oxyura Nomonyx clade had reached the New World by the middle Miocene and that the diversification present among New World Oxyurini/Oxyurinae began temporally close to the climatic warming of the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum.

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