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Stratigraphic Distribution of Large Flightless Birds in the Palaeogene of Europe

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Stratigraphic Distribution of Large Flightless Birds in the Palaeogene of Europe See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285787109 Stratigraphic Distribution of Large Flightless Birds in the Palaeogene of Europe Article · January 2014 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-04364-7_190 CITATIONS READS 3 14 2 authors: Eric Buffetaut Delphine Angst French National Centre for Scientific Research University of Cape Town 422 PUBLICATIONS 6,421 CITATIONS 21 PUBLICATIONS 86 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic giant birds View project All content following this page was uploaded by Delphine Angst on 07 December 2016. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. 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Earth-Science Reviews 138 (2014) 394–408 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Earth-Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/earscirev Stratigraphic distribution of large flightless birds in the Palaeogene of Europe and its palaeobiological and palaeogeographical implications Eric Buffetaut a,⁎, Delphine Angst b a Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 8538, Laboratoire de Géologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France b Université Claude Bernard — Lyon 1, UMR5276 Terre, Planète et Environnement, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, 2 rue Dubois — Géode, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France article info abstract Article history: The stratigraphic distribution of the three main groups of large flightless birds known from the Palaeogene of Received 8 April 2014 Europe, Gastornithidae, Phorusrhacidae and Ratitae, is reviewed. The huge, herbivorous gastornithids, represented Accepted 3 July 2014 by the single genus Gastornis, are known from the Selandian (Middle Palaeocene) to the late Lutetian (Middle Available online 11 July 2014 Eocene), being recorded from reference levels MP5 to MP13. The carnivorous phorusrhacids are represented by a single species, Eleutherornis cotei, from the late Lutetian (MP14, late Middle Eocene). The ratites have a patchy dis- Keywords: Aves tribution, being represented by two species of moderate size, Remiornis heberti from the Thanetian (MP6, Late Palaeogene Palaeocene) and Palaeotis weigelti from the Lutetian (MP11 to MP13, Middle Eocene). The stratigraphic distributions Stratigraphy of large eggs referred to gastornithids in the Late Palaeocene and Early Eocene of southern Europe and the occur- Gastornithidae renceofenigmaticlargeavianfootprintsintheLateEoceneofFrancearediscussed.Whereasgastornithidsandrat- Ratitae ites co-existed in both the Palaeocene and the Middle Eocene, phorusrhacids seem to have been the only large Phorusrhacidae ground birds in Europe at the end of the Middle Eocene. The palaeobiogeographical and evolutionary implications of the stratigraphic distributions of those groups of large birds in Europe are discussed. As Gastornis first appears in North America and in Asia in the Early Eocene, it is likely that gastornithids originated in Europe and later spread to other land masses during a dispersal event close to the Palaeocene–Eocene boundary. Prior to that, gastornithids evolved on the European “island continent”, where they were the largest terrestrial tetrapods during the Palaeocene. Gastornithids do not seem to have been significantly affected by the PETM. Ratitae have a more patchy record and relationships between Remiornis and Palaeotis remain unclear. Nevertheless, those European forms are among the earliest known ratites and this should not be overlooked in discussions of ratite evolution and palaeobiogeography. Phorusrhacids appear to have been present in Europe for only a short time and are interpreted as the result of dispersal from Africa followed by local extinction. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction.............................................................. 395 2. Geologicalsetting........................................................... 395 3. Systematicpalaeontology........................................................ 395 3.1. Gastornithidae......................................................... 395 3.2. Ratitae............................................................. 397 3.3. Phorusrhacidae......................................................... 397 4. StratigraphicdistributionofGastornithidae................................................ 398 4.1. Palaeocene........................................................... 398 4.1.1. Walbeck,Sachsen-Anhalt,Germany............................................ 398 4.1.2. Cernay-lès-ReimsandBerru,Marne,France........................................ 399 4.1.3. Louvois,Marne,France................................................. 399 4.1.4. Mesvin,Belgium.................................................... 399 4.1.5. Rivecourt,Oise,France.................................................. 399 4.2. EarlyEocene.......................................................... 400 4.2.1. Meudon,HautsdeSeine,France............................................. 400 4.2.2. Croydon,Surrey,England................................................ 400 ⁎ Corresponding author. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2014.07.001 0012-8252/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. E. Buffetaut, D. Angst / Earth-Science Reviews 138 (2014) 394–408 395 4.2.3. Saint-Papoul,Aude,France............................................... 400 4.2.4. Monthelon,Marne,France................................................ 400 4.3. MiddleEocene......................................................... 400 4.3.1. Messel,Hessen,Germany................................................ 400 4.3.2. Geiseltal,Sachsen-Anhalt,Germany........................................... 400 5. StratigraphicdistributionofRatitae................................................... 400 5.1. Palaeocene........................................................... 400 5.1.1. Berru,Marne,France.................................................. 400 5.1.2. Rivecourt,Oise,France................................................. 400 5.2. Eocene............................................................. 400 5.2.1. Messel,Hessen,Germany................................................ 400 5.2.2. Geiseltal,Sachsen-Anhalt,Germany........................................... 400 6. StratigraphicdistributionofPhorusrhacidae............................................... 401 7. Eggshells............................................................... 401 7.1. France............................................................. 401 7.2. Spain............................................................. 402 8. Footprints............................................................... 402 9. Discussion.............................................................. 403 9.1. Faunalsuccession........................................................ 403 9.2. Evolutionaryandpalaeobiogeographicalimplications........................................ 403 9.2.1. Gastornithidae..................................................... 403 9.2.2. Ratitae......................................................... 404 9.2.3. Phorusrhacidae..................................................... 404 9.2.4. Flightlessness,climateandextinction........................................... 404 10. Conclusion.............................................................. 405 Acknowledgments.............................................................. 406 References................................................................. 406 1. Introduction Palaeogene fossil groups, including birds (Fig. 2), in Europe. Palaeogene birds are known from a number of localities in Europe (Mlíkovský, Large to very large flightless birds, belonging to various avian groups, 2002; Mayr, 2005a, 2009), most of which are well dated. In addition evolved several times during the Cenozoic in various parts of the world. to the standard stratigraphic scale based on the marine record, specific The Australian dromornithids (Murray and Vickers-Rich, 2004), the scales have been devised to account for the stratigraphic distribution mainly South American phorusrhacids (Alvarenga and Höfling, 2003; of land vertebrates, especially mammals; they include European Land Agnolin, 2009; Tambussi and Degrange, 2013)andtheinsularmoas Mammal Ages (ELMA) and reference levels (MP for the Palaeogene) — of New Zealand (Worthy and Scofield, 2012) and aepyornithids of see Vandenberghe et al. (2012) for a recent review and correlation Madagascar (Monnier, 1913; Lamberton, 1934; Balanoff and Rowe, charts. We have attempted to use all three complementary systems in 2007) are well known examples of such groups that are now extinct, our discussion of the stratigraphic distribution of large flightless birds, and the present-day ratites (ostriches, rheas, cassowaries, emus, as as this is likely to make correlations easier. well as the smaller kiwis), with their wide and complex geographical fl distribution, are living instances. Large ightless birds were also present 3. Systematic palaeontology in Europe during the Palaeogene (Fig. 1), together with much smaller, fl possibly ightless, forms such as the Ameghinornithidae (Mayr, 2009), From a systematic point of view, three not closely related groups of which pose different problems and are not discussed in the present large flightess
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