Article Dans Une Revue Paläontologische Zeitschrift Année : 2025

A new species of swift (Aves, Apodidae) from the Early Pliocene of Langebaanweg, South Africa

Marco Pavia
Romala Govender
Massimo Delfino

Résumé

We describe a new species of Apus (Aves, Apodidae) from the Early Pliocene of Langebaanweg (Cape Province, South Africa). A single swift humerus was reported from Langebaanweg's extraordinary rich fossil bird association, but it was never analyzed in detail.

More recently, we located a second bone, a carpometacarpus, and completed the comparison of these two specimens with the corresponding bones of as many species of Apodidae as possible, leading to the description of the new species Apus boanoi sp. nov. The new species represents the largest species of the genus Apus known so far and the oldest from Africa; it represents an important calibration point for the split between Apus and Tachymarptis. The rarity of the new species in the very rich Langebaanweg fossil bird assemblage fits with the current paleoenvironmental reconstruction of a flat fluvial and coastal environment not suitable as breeding area for Apus swifts.

Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
Pavia et al 2025 Apus LBW post-print.pdf (656.92 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origine Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
Licence

Dates et versions

hal-05006023 , version 1 (26-03-2025)

Licence

Identifiants

Citer

Marco Pavia, Antoine Louchart, Romala Govender, Massimo Delfino. A new species of swift (Aves, Apodidae) from the Early Pliocene of Langebaanweg, South Africa. Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 2025, ⟨10.1007/s12542-024-00711-y⟩. ⟨hal-05006023⟩
139 Consultations
223 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

  • More