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| Pachystruthio dmanisensis
in Zelenkov, Lavrov, Startsev, et al, 2019
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ABSTRACT
Giant birds, comparable in size to elephant birds and moa, have never been reported from Europe. Here, we describe a femur from the lower Pleistocene of the north Black Sea area (Crimea) that is referred to Pachystruthio dmanisensis, comb. nov., a giant bird with an estimated body mass of about 450 kg. This value makes this extinct bird one of the largest known avians (comparable to Aepyornis maximus) and the only bird of such giant size in Europe and the Northern Hemisphere in general. In contrast to very large insular birds, Pachystruthio dmanisensis was a good runner, which may be explained by its coexistence with large carnivoran mammals. Pachystruthio dmanisensis and associated assemblage of fossil mammals are shared with the Dmanisi locality in Georgia (∼1.8–1.7 Ma); thus, this giant bird was likely a typical component of eastern European faunas at the time of early hominin arrival. We suggest that Pachystruthio dmanisensis, together with early Homo and a variety of mammals, reached the northern Black Sea region via the southern Caucasus and Anatolia, because the older (Pliocene) finds of this fauna are known from Georgia and Turkey.
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Illustration: Andrey Atuchin
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SYSTEMATIC PALEONTOLOGY
Order ?STRUTHIONIFORMES
Family INCERTAE SEDIS
Genus PACHYSTRUTHIO Kretzoi, 1954
?PACHYSTRUTHIO DMANISENSIS (Burchak-Abramovich and Vekua, 1990), comb. nov.
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| FIGURE 2. Fossil femora of an extinct giant bird from the Crimean Peninsula (eastern Europe), with that of an average Recent ostrich for comparison. A, C, E, F, Pachystruthio dmanisensis, comb. nov., specimen PIN 5644/56, from Taurida Cave, Crimean Peninsula (early Pleistocene); B, D, Struthio camelus, osteological collection of PIN 1741-1. A, B, cranial view; C, D, caudal view; E, lateral view; F, proximal view.
Abbreviations: cf, caput femoris; cl, condylus lateralis; cm, condylus medialis; ct, crista trochanteris; faa, facies articularis antitrochanterica; fop, fossa poplitea; fp, foramen pneumaticum; li, linea intermuscularis; sic, sulcus intercondylaris; sp, sulcus patellaris; tfi, trochlea fibularis.
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| FIGURE 3. Map showing distribution of bony remains of the giant species of Pachystruthio (large ostrich silhouettes) and smaller Struthio ostriches (small ostrich silhouettes) in the Black Sea region in the Pliocene (5.3–2.6 Ma; blue), Gelasian (2.6–1.8 Ma; green), and Calabrian (1.8–0.8 Ma; brown). Pachystruthio from Hungary (Kretzoi, 1954) is not shown. Localities: 1, Odessa catacombs (early Pliocene); 2, Kvabebi (late Pliocene); 3, Liventsovka (Gelasian); 4, Taurida Cave (Calabrian); 5, Dmanisi (Calabrian). |
Nikita V. Zelenkov, Alexander V. Lavrov, Dmitry B. Startsev, Innessa A. Vislobokova and Alexey V. Lopatin. 2019. A Giant early Pleistocene Bird from eastern Europe: Unexpected Component of Terrestrial Faunas at the Time of early Homo arrival. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. e1605521 DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2019.1605521
Half-tonne birds may have roamed Europe at same time as humans theguardian.com/science/2019/jun/27/half-tonne-birds-roamed-europe-humans
