Abstract
A new phoenicopteriform bird, Palaelodus kurochkini sp. nov., is described from the terminal middle Miocene of Mongolia (the Sharga locality) on the basis of a partial tibiotarsus and tentatively associated fragmentary tarsometatarsus, carpometacarpus and proximal phalanx of the major wing digit. This is the first record of the extinct phoenicopteriform family Palaelodidae in Asia and shows that the genus Palaelodus is one of few taxa in the Sharga fauna to have a wide distribution range. Two other fossils of Phoenicopteriform birds from the Cenozoic of Central Asia are also restudied in this work; Agnopterus turgaiensis from the early Oligocene of Kazakhstan is provisionally placed within the extant family Phoenicopteridae, and Cygnopterus lambrechti, also from the Lower Oligocene of Kazakhstan, is identified as belonging to an indeterminate phoenicopteriform family.
Published Version
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