A pelican tarsometatarsus (Aves: Pelecanidae) from the latest Pliocene Siwaliks of India.

We report a new fossil specimen of a pelican from the Tatrot Formation of the Siwalik Hills, India. It likely represents Pelecanus sivalensis Davies, 1880, the smaller of the two previously published species from the Siwalik Group stratigraphic sequence. This complete tarsometatarsus is the first fo...

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Autores principales:	Thomas A Stidham, Kewal Krishan, Bahadur Singh, Abhik Ghosh, Rajeev Patnaik
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/6ce674ca06f84e9fa07681525b40d919
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:6ce674ca06f84e9fa07681525b40d9192021-11-25T05:54:49ZA pelican tarsometatarsus (Aves: Pelecanidae) from the latest Pliocene Siwaliks of India.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0111210https://doaj.org/article/6ce674ca06f84e9fa07681525b40d9192014-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111210https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203We report a new fossil specimen of a pelican from the Tatrot Formation of the Siwalik Hills, India. It likely represents Pelecanus sivalensis Davies, 1880, the smaller of the two previously published species from the Siwalik Group stratigraphic sequence. This complete tarsometatarsus is the first fossil bone of a pelican collected in India for over 100 years. It is from the latest Pliocene (∼2.6 Ma), and is the youngest pelican fossil from the region. The new specimen exhibits a derived distoplantar 'slant' to the plantar margin of the medial crest of the hypotarsus, and a combination of features related to the morphology of the hypotarsus, the distal foramen, trochleae, and overall size that allow further differentiation from known tarsometatarsi of fossil and extant pelicans, including the three species of extant pelicans that occur in India (Pelecanus crispus, P. onocrotalus, and P. philippensis). It is of appropriate size for Pelecanus sivalensis, which to date has been known only by fragments of other skeletal elements of the wing, leg, and shoulder girdle. Thus, the observation that this tarsometatarsus is morphologically distinct from those of known pelicans provides further support for the distinctiveness of at least one extinct species of pelican from the Siwalik Group sediments. While the morphology of the tarsometatarsus allows for separation from other taxa known from tarsometatarsi, we found no clear shared derived states to place this taxon with any confidence in a phylogenetic context relative to any other pelican species, or even determine if it is part of the crown group of Pelecanidae. However, published molecular data are consistent with an origin of the crown clade prior to the Pleistocene, suggesting (along with one morphological character) the possibility that this species belongs to the Old World clade of pelican species.Thomas A StidhamKewal KrishanBahadur SinghAbhik GhoshRajeev PatnaikPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 9, Iss 11, p e111210 (2014)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Thomas A Stidham Kewal Krishan Bahadur Singh Abhik Ghosh Rajeev Patnaik A pelican tarsometatarsus (Aves: Pelecanidae) from the latest Pliocene Siwaliks of India.
description	We report a new fossil specimen of a pelican from the Tatrot Formation of the Siwalik Hills, India. It likely represents Pelecanus sivalensis Davies, 1880, the smaller of the two previously published species from the Siwalik Group stratigraphic sequence. This complete tarsometatarsus is the first fossil bone of a pelican collected in India for over 100 years. It is from the latest Pliocene (∼2.6 Ma), and is the youngest pelican fossil from the region. The new specimen exhibits a derived distoplantar 'slant' to the plantar margin of the medial crest of the hypotarsus, and a combination of features related to the morphology of the hypotarsus, the distal foramen, trochleae, and overall size that allow further differentiation from known tarsometatarsi of fossil and extant pelicans, including the three species of extant pelicans that occur in India (Pelecanus crispus, P. onocrotalus, and P. philippensis). It is of appropriate size for Pelecanus sivalensis, which to date has been known only by fragments of other skeletal elements of the wing, leg, and shoulder girdle. Thus, the observation that this tarsometatarsus is morphologically distinct from those of known pelicans provides further support for the distinctiveness of at least one extinct species of pelican from the Siwalik Group sediments. While the morphology of the tarsometatarsus allows for separation from other taxa known from tarsometatarsi, we found no clear shared derived states to place this taxon with any confidence in a phylogenetic context relative to any other pelican species, or even determine if it is part of the crown group of Pelecanidae. However, published molecular data are consistent with an origin of the crown clade prior to the Pleistocene, suggesting (along with one morphological character) the possibility that this species belongs to the Old World clade of pelican species.
format	article
author	Thomas A Stidham Kewal Krishan Bahadur Singh Abhik Ghosh Rajeev Patnaik
author_facet	Thomas A Stidham Kewal Krishan Bahadur Singh Abhik Ghosh Rajeev Patnaik
author_sort	Thomas A Stidham
title	A pelican tarsometatarsus (Aves: Pelecanidae) from the latest Pliocene Siwaliks of India.
title_short	A pelican tarsometatarsus (Aves: Pelecanidae) from the latest Pliocene Siwaliks of India.
title_full	A pelican tarsometatarsus (Aves: Pelecanidae) from the latest Pliocene Siwaliks of India.
title_fullStr	A pelican tarsometatarsus (Aves: Pelecanidae) from the latest Pliocene Siwaliks of India.
title_full_unstemmed	A pelican tarsometatarsus (Aves: Pelecanidae) from the latest Pliocene Siwaliks of India.
title_sort	pelican tarsometatarsus (aves: pelecanidae) from the latest pliocene siwaliks of india.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2014
url	https://doaj.org/article/6ce674ca06f84e9fa07681525b40d919
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A pelican tarsometatarsus (Aves: Pelecanidae) from the latest Pliocene Siwaliks of India.

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