The Pliocene Rails of North America

Abstract

To increase our understanding of Pliocene local faunas of North America, several recent studies of fossil birds have been made from material collected by Claude W. Hibbard and his field parties from the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology. Ibises have been reported by Collins (1964), owls by Ford (1966) and Ford and Murray (1967), grebes by Murray (1967), a gallinule by Brodkorb (1967), crane and stork fossils by Feduccia (1967a), and a swallow by Feduccia (1967b). The fossil material has been recovered mainly from four localities: the Sawrock Canyon, Fox Canyon, and Rexroad local faunas from Kansas, and the Hagerman local fauna from Idaho. Birds reported previously from these localities include those studied by Wetmore (1944) and Tordoff (1951, 1959) from the Rexroad local fauna, and by Wetmore (1933) and Brodkorb (1958) from the Hagerman local fauna. The present study was undertaken to learn more about the rails from these local faunas. Rallus phillipsi Wetmore from Mohave County, Arizona, and Fulica infelix Brodkorb from Malheur County, Oregon, are included in the systematic list to complete the North American Pliocene rail fauna. During the course of this study, 46 Recent species representing 19 genera of rails were examined in the collections of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, the United States National Museum, and Pierce Brodkorb. The specimens examined included seven species of Rallus and five species of Porzana. The type humerus and some of the referred material of Rallus prenticei were loaned through the kindness of W. A. Clemens of the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History and sent to me by Pierce Brodkorb who had them on loan. Several skins were examined to gain some idea of size where skeletal material was not available. The fossils examined are in the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology (UMMP) and the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History (KU). The classification of rails used is that of Peters' Check-list (1934).