B/OGEOGHAPHIA — vol. XIX - 1997 (Pubblicalo il 31 artobre 1998) Gli effetti delle variazioni climatiche pleistoeeniche suila dinarnica dei popolamenti animali e vegetali nella Penisola italiana Peafowls (g. P4220 Linnaeus, 1758) and Ptarmigans (g. Lclgopus Brisson, 1760): an unique coexistence in North Bulgaria over 3 m.y. ago ZLATOZAR BOEV Ntztiamzl M usmm 0fNzztuml Histmj/, Bzzlgrzrizziz Atzzdemy 0f5cie72ces 1 Mud. Tsar Oryolvociitel, 1000 Sofia — Bulgrzrzkz Ke words: Pliocene avifaunas, Palaeoenvironment. Fossil birds, “Mixed” avifaunas, Balkan eninsula, Y P Bulgaria. SUMMARY The Peafowls of genus Pm/a are considered as tropical and subtropical inhabitants of the Asian jungle—like forests from the modern ornithogeographical point of view. At the same time the genus Largopzzr has Holarctic present day distribution in the open country and the broadleaf scub in the Arctic, Alpine and Boreal zones. Six avian taxa were established in the Pliocene site ofMuselievo (43.36 N, 24.50 E) near Danube river. CN Bulgaria, dated MN 15. Among them are the finds ofBrav:ird's Peafowl (Pm/a brm//zrdi [Gerves, 1849; 18484 852]). and a humeral fragment of a Ptarmigan (Lagapm sp. indet.). Thus, the site provides for the first time from the Early Pliocene ofBalkans, an example of the “mixed avifaunasq — a phenomenon well known among the mammalian faunistic complexes ofS Europe, which was best represented during the Villafranchian. INTRODUCTION Data on fossil and subfossil avifaunas of Bulgaria are poor. A total of 117 taxa of Holocene (Boev, 1996a), 61 of Pleistocene (Boev, 1995) and about 90 of Neogene (at least 8 Miocene and over 80 Pliocene) (Boev, 1996b) were established up to present. MATERIAL AND METHODS The material was collected in l988—1994 by Dr. Vassil Popov, M. Sc. Stefan Stefanov, and by the author. After the excavations, all sediments have been sifted through the screen of 2 mm mesh and floated. The finds have been identified by the comparative avian skeleton collection of the Centre de Sciences de la Terre of the Universite Claude Bernard—Lyon. Their morphological descriptions will be presented in special papers (Boev, in press).