Fossil Storks (Ciconiidae) from the Late Eocene and Early Miocene of Egypt

Abstract

Miller, E.R., Tab Rasmussen, D. & Simons, E.L. 1997. Fossil Storks (Ciconiidae) from the Late Eocene and Early Miocene of Egypt. Ostrich 68 (1): 23–26. Two fossil stork tibiotarsii from Egypt, one a late Eocene ciconiid from the Fayum Province, and the other a lower Miocene specimen of Leptoptilos sp. from Wadi Moghara, are described and discussed. The late Eocene ciconiid specimen marks the first appearance of a stork in the African fossil record and may also represent the earliest fossil stork known anywhere. The lower Miocene specimen of Leptoptilos is one of the earliest records of a modern-type stork in Africa, and the first occurrence of a modern stork in North Africa. The addition of these two specimens, together with other ciconiid material from younger Miocene sites in Tunisia, gives North Africa the most complete record of fossil storks. The presence of these specimens in North Africa is consistent with paleoenvironmental reconstructions of northern Egypt during the Eocene to Miocene as an area of tropical to subtropical wet coastal lowland.