Ciconia, Brisson, 1760

Suárez, William, 2020, The fossil avifauna of the tar seeps Las Breas de San Felipe, Matanzas, Cuba, Zootaxa 4780 (1), pp. 1-53 : 8-9

Ciconia sp.

( Figure 4 :A)

Ciconia sp. Suárez & Olson, 2003a, Condor, vol. 105, p.151. Referred material. San Felipe I: Distal end of right tibiotarsus, MNHNCu 75.4599.

Description. This specimen differs, according to Suárez & Olson (2003a:151), from the same element in Mycteria americana Linnaeus, 1758 , by a wide intercondylar groove ( Fig. 4A ; very narrow in the living species). The only known specimen of Ciconia sp., has a distal width of 15.4; smaller than in the tibiotarsus of C. maltha L. Miller, 1910 (18.0–21.5, N = 25 [ Howard 1942]), and C. maguari ( Gmelin, 1789) (17.1–19.6, N = 5 [ Suárez & Olson 2003a: table 1]).

Comments. Known in Cuba only from asphalt deposits, where the fragment in discussion seems to represent a new species of stork, not yet described ( Suárez & Olson 2003a), smaller than Ciconia maltha , and similar in size to the White Stork, C. ciconia ( Linnaeus, 1758) . The only other material in Cuba referable to this genus is a proximal third of tarsometatarsus and a distal end of tibiotarsus, from the thermal baths of Ciego Montero, Palmira Municipality, Cienfuegos Province, originally identified as Jabiru mycteria Lichtenstein, 1819 , by Wetmore (1928:2), and reassigned to C. maltha by Howard (1942). This last species has not been registered in Cuba since that date. Agnolín (2009) considered that C. maltha is a posterior synonym of C. lydekkeri ( Ameghino, 1891) .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Ciconia sp.: Right tibiotarsus (MNHNCu 75.4599) in distal view (A). Mycteria wetmorei: Right carpometacarpus (MNHNCu 75.4602) in ventral view (B); right tibiotarsus (MNHNCu 75.4603) in distal (C) and anterior (D) views; left tarsometatarsus (MNHNCu 75.4757) in proximal (E), distal (F), anterior (G), medial (H) and posterior (I) views. Mycteria americana: Right carpometacarpus (MNHNCu 75.4601) in ventral view (J). Scale = 2 cm.