A new Eocene species of presbyornithid (Aves, Anseriformes) from Murgon, Australia

Abstract

The taxa found in an Eocene deposit, near Murgon, Queensland, the only pre-Oligocene Paleogene site recording a terrestrial vertebrate fauna from Australia, are very significant for the insight they provide concerning the evolution of the Australian biota. Here we resolve the identity of fossils previously referred to the Graculavidae, waterbirds of then unresolved affinities. We taxonomically describe the first bird to be named from this fauna, Murgonornis archeri gen. et sp. nov., Presbyornithidae. Our findings reveal that presbyornithids were widespread globally in the earliest Eocene, and that this family had a history on Australia from at least 55 Ma until ca. 24 Ma, when they disappear from the fossil record.Trevor H. Worthy [trevor.worthy@flinders.edu.au], College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, SA, Australia; Vanesa L. De Pietri [vanesa.depietri@canterbury.ac.nz], University of Canterbury, School of Earth and Environment, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand; R. Paul Scofield [pscofield@canterburymuseum.com], Canterbury Museum, 11 Rolleston Avenue, Christchurch 8013, New Zealand; Suzanne J. Hand [s.hand@unsw.edu.au], Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.