Oldest fossil record of Sulidae from New Zealand (1 Viewer)

[Fred Ruhe]

Daniel T. Ksepka & Alan J. D. Tennyson, 2023

Oldest fossil record of Sulidae from New Zealand

Journal of Ornithology
doi:10.1007/s10336-023-02117-0.

Abstract: Oldest fossil record of Sulidae from New Zealand - Journal of Ornithology

We report the oldest fossil record of Sulidae from New Zealand. Osteological features indicate that a humerus collected from the Hurupi Formation at Whatarangi Bluff (Wairarapa, North Island) belongs to a species more closely related to Morus (gannets) than to Papasula (Abbott’s Booby) or Sula (other boobies). The length of the humerus exceeds the species averages of all extant gannet species, and its age pre-dates the estimated divergence of extant Morus serrator. The Whatarangi fossil most likely represents an unnamed stem gannet species, and reveals that gannets dispersed to New Zealand at least twice.

Enjoy,

Fred

 

[Swindon Addick]

Additional information in the Google "featured snippet", which appears to be freely available (the article itself is paywalled):
"To date, no pre-Holocene sulid fossils have been reported from New Zealand, or from Australasia in general. The oldest published New Zealand records are scattered Holocene remains attributed to Morus (Holdaway et al. 2001). Here, we report a Miocene sulid humerus which greatly extends the regional record of the clade."

 

[Fred Ruhe]

Additional information in the Google "featured snippet", which appears to be freely available (the article itself is paywalled):
"To date, no pre-Holocene sulid fossils have been reported from New Zealand, or from Australasia in general. The oldest published New Zealand records are scattered Holocene remains attributed to Morus (Holdaway et al. 2001). Here, we report a Miocene sulid humerus which greatly extends the regional record of the clade."

Hi Swindon,

Welcome on the Bird Paleontology subforum.

I suppose by Holdaway et al., 2001 you mean Richard N. Holdaway, Trevor Henry Worthy & Alan J. D. Tennyson, 2001
A Working List of Breeding Bird Species of the New Zealand Region at First Human Contact
New Zealand Journal of Zoology 28: 119-187
or do you mean something else?

Fred

 

[Fred Ruhe]

Systematic paleontology

Suliformes Sharpe, 1891.
Sulidae Reichenbach, 1849.
Morus Vieillot, 1816.

Morus sp.

Referred specimen: NMNZ S.46065 nearly complete left humerus (Fig. 1).

Locality and horizon: The specimen was collected by Tony Tomlin and the late Lesley Barnes on January 3, 2015 in a gully approximately 2 m below the road edge on the southbound side of the No.
1 culvert at Whatarangi Bluff, Wairarapa, North Island, New Zealand. The fossil was found in situ in an outcrop of mudstone that represents the Hurupi Formation. This fossiliferous unit is dominated by massive marine sandstones and mudstones with pebble-rich horizons (Kamp et al. 2015). The presence of Globoconella miotumida and absence of Globoquadrina dehiscens together suggest the age of the
Hurupi Formation at Whatarangi Bluff spans 6.70–9.03 Ma, corresponding to the regional Tongaporutuan Stage (Late Miocene) (Martin Crundwell, pers. com.).

Differential diagnosos: The taxonomy of fossil sulids is plagued by highly incomplete holotypes and in dire need of revision. At present, six Late Miocene Pacific species of Morus are recognized (Stucchi 2003). The humerus of the Peruvian species Morus peruvianus Stucchi, 2003. remains unknown, precluding comparisons. All five of the remaining species are known from California. Humerus length (HL) indicates that Morus willetti (L. H. Miller, 1925). (HL = 156 mm) and Morus media (L. H. Miller, 1925). (Miosula media L. H. Miller, 1925). (HL = 180 mm) are both much smaller than the Whatarangi gannet (HL = ~ 230 mm). In turn, Morus magnus Howard, 1978. (HL = ~ 280 mm, extrapolated from distal width) is substantially larger. Morus lompocanus (L. H. Miller, 1925). (HL = 245 mm) and Morus stocktoni L. H. Miller, 1935. (Paleosula stocktoni (L. H. Miller, 1935).) (HL = ~ 264 mm) fall within the potential range of sizes expected for the species represented by the Whatarangi gannet, assuming intraspecific
size variation mirrored extant gannet species and the NZ fossil was at the lower end of the range. Unfortunately, no meaningful comparisons can be made due to damage to the proximal and distal ends of the holotype humeri of these species. Given the wide geographical ranges of several modern sulid species, it is within the realm of possibility that the Whatarangi gannet represents a cross-Pacific occurrence of Morus lompocanus (L. H. Miller, 1925). or Morus stocktoni (L. H. Miller, 1935)., though we consider this unlikely.

Fred


Fig. 1 Left humerus of the Whatarangi gannet (NMNZ S.46065) in (a) caudal and (c) cranial views with extant Morus serrator (Australasian Gannet: NMNZ OR.27481) in (b) caudal and (d) cranial views for comparison. Close-up cranial views of the proximal and distal ends of the humerus in (e, h) the Whatarangi gannet, (f, i) Morus serrator, and (g, j) Sula dactylatra (Masked Booby: NMNZ OR.27613). Abbreviations: fb fossa m. brachialis, fo fossa olecrani, gr groove-like depression, ld insertion of m. latissimus dorsi, tps tubercle for insertion of m. pectoralis superficialis, tsv tuberculum supracondylare ventrale. Arrow indicates distal extension of the caput humeri into the sulcus transversus, which is outlined with dashed lines.
Scale applies to (a)–(d), other images not to scale

 

[Swindon Addick]

Hi Swindon,

Welcome on the Bird Paleontology subforum.

I suppose by Holdaway et al., 2001 you mean Richard N. Holdaway, Trevor Henry Worthy & Alan J. D. Tennyson, 2001
A Working List of Breeding Bird Species of the New Zealand Region at First Human Contact
New Zealand Journal of Zoology 28: 119-187
or do you mean something else?

Fred

I assume it must be that reference - the reference list for the article is public and my understanding of how Google produce these snippets is that it should be a direct quote from the text, not an AI summary that might mangle a reference name.

I was really only quoting it because of the small detail of quite how much older this fossil is than anything previous. I'd gone looking for any non-specialist new articles that might have been written about it, without success.

 

[Fred Ruhe]

Hi Swindon,

You have been through quite some trouble finding out about fossil Sulidae from New Zealand, unfortunately, except for the Holocene period there is only the newly described hujmerus from the Late Miocene of North Island. I can send you the paper if you want to read it (bujt then I need your e-mail address). More on all fossil Sulidae (a very interesting grtoup( you can find in the thread Descriptions of all fossil Stegano-Grallatores, Descriptions of all fossil Stegano-Grallatores. I find Ramphastosula aguirrei Stucchi, Varas-Malca et Urbina-Schmitt, 2016 a very interesting species and its strange bill!

Fred