New remains of Struthio coppensi, Early Miocene, Namibia (1 Viewer)

[Fred Ruhe]

Cécile Mourer-Chauviré, Martin Pickford & Brigitte Senut, 2023

New remains of Struthio coppensi, Early Miocene, Namibia

Communications of the Geological Survey of Namibia. 26: 21–33.

Abstract and free pdf: https://www.mme.gov.na/files/public... al 2023_New remains of Struthio coppensi.pdf

Field surveys over the past decade in the Sperrgebiet, Namibia, have led to the recovery of additional fossil remains of the Early Miocene ostrich, Struthio coppensi Mourer-Chauviré et al. 1996, including three fossils from a locality, Grillental VI, from which the species had not previously been recorded. Among the new material, there are two pedal phalanges and a cervical vertebra, as well as additional leg bones (tibiotarsus, tarsometatarsus). Descriptions and illustrations are provided of the
material, which conform in dimensions and morphology with what would be expected for Struthio coppensi, which had ca 65% the dimensions of the extant ostrich, Struthio camelus

Enjoy,

Fred

 

[Fred Ruhe]

Systematics

Order Struthioniformes Latham, 1790
Genus Struthio Linnaeus, 1758
Species Struthio coppensi Mourer-Chauviré, Senut, Pickford et Mein, 1996

Holotype :-GSN EF 3’94, distal end left tibiotarsus

Type locality and age :- Elisabethfeld, Sperrgebiet, Namibia, Early Miocene, ca 21-20 Ma.

Other localities :- Grillental VI, Sperrgebiet, Namibia, ca 20-19 Ma.

New material
Grillental :- GSN GT 54’16, tibiotarsus, distal part (Fig. 2); GSN GT 41’18, first phalanx pedal digit III (Fig. 9); GSN GT 8’13, second phalanx pedal digit III
Elisabethfeld :- GSN EF 7’23, cervical vertebra (Fig. 1); GSN EF 4’23, right tibiotarsus distal part GSN EF 1’14, left tibiotarsus distal end (Fig. 4, 5); GSN EF 1’16, right tarsometatarsus, distal part and shaft (Fig. 6); GSN EF 18’16, left tarsometatarsus

Fred


Figure 1. GSN EF 4’23, distal end of the right tibiotarsus. A) stereo cranial view, B) lateral view, C) stereo caudal view, D) medial view.


Figure 4. GSN EF 1’14, left tibiotarsus of Struthio coppensi from Elisabethfeld, Namibia. A) stereo caudal view, B) stereo cranial view, C) medial view, D) distal view, E) stereo lateral view.


Figure 3. Comparison of the supra articular tubercle (TSA) of the distal left tibiotarsus in A) Struthio camelus (specimen Sh1 in the Musée des Confluences, Lyon) and B) Struthio coppensi (GSN EF 1’14). The images are produced at the same size to facilitate comparisons.