Abstract
The first anatomically assembled skeletal remains of Neogene birds in Russia have been found. The head and a fragment of the vertebral column of a duck (Anatidae) and a hind limb of a perching bird (Passeriformes) from the Middle Miocene of the Krasnodar Region (Tsurevsky Formation) comprise the earliest known Miocene birds from European Russia. The skull of a very small duck (smaller than any extant species of Eurasian ducks) shows a combination of morphological characters characteristic of the extant species of Tadorna and Nettapus, and could belong to a representative of the fossil genus Mioquerquedula. This discovery supports a separate generic status for small-sized middle Miocene anatids from Eurasia, and suggests that they were more primitive than the extant Anatinae.
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More From: Doklady biological sciences : proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Biological sciences sections
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