Abstract
Psammornis rothschildi is an avian taxon established by Andrews in 1911 on the basis of eggshell fragments surface-collected near the city of Touggourt, in the north-eastern part of the Algerian Sahara. Since the initial discovery, a number of Psammornis specimens have been reported from various localities in North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania) and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Iran). Most of the finds lack a stratigraphic context, which has resulted in considerable confusion about the geological age of Psammornis, with attributions ranging from the Eocene to the Holocene. A review of the available evidence shows that only two groups of localities provide reasonably reliable stratigraphic evidence: the Segui Formation of SW Tunisia, apparently of latest Miocene age, and the Aguerguerian (Middle Pleistocene) of NW Mauritania. This suggests a fairly long time range for Psammornis. Psammornis eggs are, in all likelihood, those of giant ostriches, although the lack of associated skeletal material makes it difficult to interpret the eggshell fragments in evolutionary terms. However, the oological record suggests that giant ostriches have been present in Africa since the late Miocene, which leads to the reconsideration of some hypotheses about the palaeobiogeographical history of the Struthionidae. The lack of Psammornis eggs transformed by humans suggests that this giant ostrich did not survive until Epipalaeolthic or Neolithic times.
Highlights
The genus Psammornis was established in 1911 by Andrews [1], with P. rothschildi as the type species, on the basis of eggshell fragments collected in southern Algeria in the course of one of Lord Rothschild’s expeditions to North Africa [2]
There seems to be a measure of consensus about the fact that the large thick-shelled Psammornis eggs were produced by giant ostriches, the lack of association with skeletal material makes an interpretation in evolutionary terms difficult
A review of the literature, including various important papers which, for some reason, have been ignored by most authors dealing with the topic, shows that eggs attributed to Psammornis have been discovered in situ in relatively well-dated formations at two geographically widely separated groups of localities, in south-western Tunisia and on the Mauritanian coast
Summary
The genus Psammornis was established in 1911 by Andrews [1], with P. rothschildi as the type species, on the basis of eggshell fragments collected in southern Algeria in the course of one of Lord Rothschild’s expeditions to North Africa [2]. More eggshell material collected at a number of localities in Africa and the Middle East has been attributed to Psammornis; this rather enigmatic taxon has been the subject of much speculation, both because it is represented solely by fragmentary eggshell material not clearly associated with any skeletal remains, and because the stratigraphic provenance of the specimens is often very uncertain due to many of them being surface-collected rather than found in situ in sedimentary formations Despite these uncertainties, Psammmornis is still often mentioned in works on ostrich evolution [3] as well as in papers on fossilisation [4], with different geological age estimates—Pleistocene, according to Mikhailov and Zelenkov [3], and Holocene, according to Wiemann et al [4]. Bearing in mind that the geological age of the type material of Psammornis rothschildi can rightly be considered as uncertain [11], widely different opinions have been expressed about the geological age of Psammornis specimens from various localities; this, in turn, has resulted in divergent interpretations of ratite evolutionary history in Africa and other continents
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