Ixobrychus Billberg, 1828

Nascimento, Rafael S. & Silveira, Luís Fábio, 2024, Fossil and subfossil birds of Brazil, Zoologia (e 23079) 41, pp. 1-234 : 144

Ixobrychus Billberg

475. Ixobrychus exilis (Gmelin)

Quaternary – MG

Ardetta erythromelas et aff. – Winge 1887: 30–31.

Ardea (Ardetta) erythromelas – Goeldi 1894: 559.

Ardetta erythromelas – Lambrecht 1933: 734.

Ixobrychus exilis – Brodkorb 1963: 285.

Ixobrychus exilis [ Ardetta erythromelas ] – Mones 1986: 80. Ixobrychus exilis – Cuello 1988: 32.

Ixobrychus exilis erythromelas – Nascimento and Silveira 2020: 491.

Winge (1887) reported several elements from Lapa da Escrivânia V that he associated with the species or are close to it. He had bones from skins of Ixobrychus exilis and Ixobrychus erythromelas (= Ixobrychus exilis erythromelas ) available for comparison. There are two tarsometatarsi, one that corresponds well with that of I. e. erythromelas but only slightly more robust, and another that is somewhat smaller and markedly different; a first phalanx of the left hallux, slightly shorter than in I. e. erythromelas , but with the proximal end a little more robust; two tibiotarsi, one of which is slightly smaller and divergent than that of I. e. erythromelas ; an incomplete humerus, but which corresponds well to that of I. e. erythromelas ; two cervical vertebrae, much smaller than in Butorides striata , most likely from Ixobrychus ; a coracoid, similar to that of Butorides , but smaller and relatively longer and slender; and two femora, one longer and thinner and different in several aspects from that of B. striata , and the proximal end of another, slightly smaller than in B. striata , which may belong to another species than the other bones, perhaps B. striata itself.