Ardea Linnaeus, 1758

Nascimento, Rafael S. & Silveira, Luís Fábio, 2024, Fossil and subfossil birds of Brazil, Zoologia (e 23079) 41, pp. 1-234 : 145-147

Ardea Linnaeus

477. Ardea sp.

Middle Holocene – SC

Ardea sp. – Mendes and Rodrigues 2024: 8.

Mendes and Rodrigues (2024) associated with this genus 10 bones of at least two individuals from the Congonhas I (SC-LS-30) sambaqui in Tubarão, Santa Catarina .

Threskiornithidae Poche Theristicus Wagler

478. Theristicus sp.

Quaternary – MG

Ibis (Theristicus) sp.; melanopis v. caudata ?; coerulescens? – Winge 1887: 29–30.

Ibis spec. ( melanopis ) – Goeldi 1894: 559.

Ibis (Theristicus) sp. (“ melanopsis var. caudata oder coerulescens ”) – Lambrecht 1933: 735.

Theristicus caudatus – Brodkorb 1963: 279.

Theristicus caudatus [ Ibis (Theristicus) sp.] – Mones 1986: 80. Theristicus caudatus – Cuello 1988: 33.

Theristicus sp. – Nascimento and Silveira 2020: 491.

Winge (1887) reported bones of numerous individuals from Lapa da Escrivânia V, represented by the scapula, coracoid, humerus, ulna, radius, carpometacarpus, first phalanx of the major digit of the wing, femur, tibiotarsus, and tarsometatarsus. The bones range from fully formed to fragments of difficult recognition, which he considered to belong to this taxon with a certain degree of uncertainty. Most of them belonged to young birds, which suggests they nested in the area. There is also the coracoid of an adult individual from Lapa da Escrivânia XI.

Winge noted that the bones diverge in many aspects from Plegadis chihi , Platalea leucorodia , and Platalea ajaja . They are very similar to but much larger than Phimosus infuscatus and somewhat smaller than an exceptionally large young specimen of Theristicus melanopis , but otherwise almost completely the same. However, the humerus of T. melanopis is slightly different from the cave material and P. infuscatus .

From its size, Winge considered that the material could belong to Theristicus melanopis , Theristicus caudatus (then still treated as conspecific with the previous taxon), Theristicus caerulescens , or Cercibis oxycerca , and hardly to Mesembrinibis cayennensis . Due to the morphological differences between the fossil material and T. melanopis , T. caerulescens was considered. However, this species, like T. melanopis and C. oxycerca , does not occur (at least nowadays) in the region ( Matheu et al. 2017a, 2017b, 2017c), and, probably for this reason, Brodkorb (1963) listed the record as T. caudatus .

479. Theristicus caudatus (Boddaert)

Quaternary – PI

Plataleidae ( Ibis ) – Guérin et al. 1993a: 198.

Plataleidae ( Ibis ) – Guérin et al. 1993b: 328.

Theristicus caudatus - Guérin et al. 1996: 84.

Theristicus caudatus – Guérin et al. 2002: 136.

Guérin et al. (1996) reported this species from Toca da Janela da Barra do Antonião. At least one adult individual is present in the material. This is one of the taxa the authors highlighted as no longer living in the region today .

Cathartiformes Seebohm

Cathartidae Lafresnaye 480. Cathartidae indet. 1

Quaternary – MG

Fig. 26A–C

“un Cathartes plus grand que les espèces actuelles” [?] – Gervais 1844a: 294.

Cathartes [?; in part] – Giebel 1846: 313.

“die Überreste einer hiehergehörigen Art, welche die jetzt dort lebenden an Grösse übertraf” [?] – Giebel 1847: 8. Catharte [sic] [?; in part] – Pictet 1853: 410.

“des Urubus ( Cathartes d’Illiger )” [?] – Liais 1872: 303. Cathartes aff. papae [in part] – Lund (in Winge 1887): 32. Gyparchus sp. forma magna; Gyparchus papa et aff. ( v. sim .) [”Knogler af en Form, der er meget stØrre end Gyparchus papa og maaske er en egen Art”] – Winge 1887: 14, 32.

“um Urubú-rei muito grande, especie de Sarcoramphus , que excedia muito as dimensões do actual, S. papa ” – Goeldi 1894: 76.

Gypagus papa [in part] – Lambrecht 1933: 744.

Sarcoramphus papa (?) [in part] – Brodkorb 1964: 257. Sarcoramphus papa [ Gyparchus papa ] [in part] – Mones 1986: 83. Sarcoramphus papa [in part] – Cuello 1988: 37.

Cathartidae indet. 1 – Nascimento and Silveira 2020: 491.

Along with the description of remains he associated with Sarcoramphus papa, Winge (1887) described in detail three quite altered fragments apparently of a single individual from Lapa da Escrivânia I, representing a vulture much larger than S. papa but smaller than Vultur gryphus . They are the proximal end of a right humerus that is quite incomplete and partially covered with incrustations (“ Cathartes aff. papae ” in Lund’s catalog), the proximal end of an ulna, also quite incomplete and partially covered with hardened sediment, and a coracoid in two parts, relatively shorter and more robust than in S. papa . The finding site of the coracoid was not recorded, but it apparently has the same origin of the others based on its aspect and size.

Winge noted that he was not sure whether these bones belong to an exceptionally large S. papa , a large extinct race, or a vanished species, but that several factors point to the last, and, in this case, it would represent a genus of cathartid other than Sarcoramphus . Alvarenga et al. (2008) commented that the bones found in Lapa da Escrivânia I were cleaned and re-prepared by Storrs L. Olson and Steven D. Emslie, but they do not show sufficiently preserved structures for a taxonomic diagnosis, and they may belong to the genus Pleistovultur , found in the same region.

These fossils were also mentioned by Lönnberg (1902) when he described a tarsometatarsus and an incomplete femur of a cathartid from the Pleistocene of the Tarija valley, Bolivia, as Sarcoramphus patruus ( Sarcoramphus here as a synonym of Vultur ). Regarding the possible relationship between the Brazilian and Bolivian remains, he commented ( Lönnberg 1902: 8):“Whether this one might be identical with this fossil Condor from Tarija, or not, cannot be decided upon, as unfortunately only remains of bones of the wing of the Brazilian bird are left, as Inspector H. Winge has kindly told me. The size seems, he says, however, to correspond fairly well. But if the Brazilian bird has been a true Gyparchus [= Sarcoramphus ], as I suppose it has, when that judgment has been pronounced by such an able ornithologist as Mr. [Oluf] Winge, it could not, for reasons stated above [differences between the Bolivian fossils and the living king vulture], be identical with the fossil Condor from Tarija ”. In the face of the association of a fossil ulna from the Lagoa Santa region to S. papa by Lydekker (1891; see below), Lönnberg also commented that, although rather scanty, it is right to consider, based on these authorities, the bones from the caves of Brazil as true Sarcoramphus . AgnolÍn et al. (2017a) assessed the Bolivian material and considered it a valid taxon with an uncertain generic position.

481. † Cathartidae indet. 2

Quaternary – BA

Fig. 26D

Vulturidae gen. et sp. indet. – Alvarenga et al. 2008: 616–617, fig. 3.

Alvarenga et al. (2008) reported the distal half of a left tibiotarsus ( MCL A 1795 ) found by Cástor Cartelle in Gruta dos Brejões, Morro do Chapéu, Bahia, the same site where the type specimen of Wingegyps cartellei was found .

Its damaged condyles prevented a better diagnosis of its identity, but the available traits excluded the possibility that it belongs to Vultur , Gymnogyps , Breagyps , Sarcoramphus , Geronogyps , or Pleistovultur , despite the size being close to the last. The authors believed it does not belong to any known genus of Cathartidae , but a new name was not erected in favor of the surfacing of better material.

482. Cathartidae indet. 3

Quaternary – PE

Aves [?; in part] – Faure and Guérin 2013: 181.

Vulturidae – Mayer 2013: 1.

Mayer (2013) reported cathartid remains from the Lagoa Uri de Cima site in Salgueiro, Pernambuco, found among other vertebrates in a layer dated 13,700 –8,000 years BP. It is possible that this material figures among the avian remains reported by Faure and Guérin (2013).

483. Cathartidae indet. (spp.?) 4

Middle Holocene – RS, SC

Cathartidae indet. – Mendes and Rodrigues 2024: 8.

Mendes and Rodrigues (2024) reported eight indeterminate cathartid bones belonging to at least two individuals from the Congonhas I (SC-LS-30) (Tubarão, Santa Catarina) and Figueira II ( Arroio do Sal , Rio Grande do Sul) sambaquis .