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Journal of BirdLife Australia
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Pliocene waterfowl (Aves : Anseriformes) from South Australia and a new genus and species

Trevor H. Worthy
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

Darling Building, DP 418, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. Email: trevor.worthy@adelaide.edu.au

Emu 108(2) 153-165 https://doi.org/10.1071/MU07063
Submitted: 18 October 2007  Accepted: 6 May 2008   Published: 11 June 2008

Abstract

The occurrences of fossil bones of waterfowl (Aves : Anseriformes) in Pliocene faunas from the Lake Eyre Basin are described. Nine modern taxa are present in either the Kanunka or the Toolapinna Faunas from the Tirari Formation as follows: Anseranas semipalmata (Magpie Goose), Cereopsis novaehollandiae (Cape Barren Goose), Cygnus atratus (Black Swan), Tadorna tadornoides (Australian Shelduck), Biziura lobata (Musk Duck), Oxyura australis (Blue-billed Duck), Anas cf. A. castanea (Chestnut Teal), A. cf. A. gracilis (Grey Teal) and Aythya australis (Hardhead). A new genus and species of oxyurine, Tirarinetta kanunka, gen. et sp. nov. is described from the Kanunka Fauna on the basis of a humerus.


Acknowledgements

I thank Richard Tedford and Rod Wells for the fieldwork carried out over many years that resulted in the collections containing the fossils described herein, and particularly for their making it possible for me to work on the Warburton sites in 2006 with them. The goodwill of the owners of Kalamurina Station and the manager, Nathan Keogh, enabled access to the Warburton sites. Many other people helped on these field trips but in 2006 I thank Aaron Camens for his willingness to chase small bird bones when diprotodontids were calling. I am also indebted to the University of Adelaide for supporting this fieldwork by its provision of a suitable expedition vehicle. This study would not have been possible without the cooperation of several museum collection managers and curators to whom I am particularly indebted for access to either fossils or reference material: Walter Boles, AM; Carl Mehling, AMNH; Robert Palmer, ANWC; Alan Tennyson and Gillian Stone, NMNZ; Rory O’Brien, David Pickering and Tom Rich, MV; Philippa Horton and Dennis Rice, SAM; Dirk Megirian, NTM; Rod Wells, FU; Kristen Spring and Heather Janetzki, QM; and Storrs Olson, James Dean, and Christopher Milensky, USNM. I thank Neville Pledge (SAM) and Rod Wells (FU) for readily providing data on fossil sites from which some of the specimens were derived, and Walter Boles and two anonymous referees for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.


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Appendix 1.  Birds recorded from the Kanunka Fauna. Data derived from data herein, Rich et al. (1987), Miller (1966) and SAM (T. H. Worthy, pers. obs.)
NISP, number of individual specimens
A1



Appendix 2.  List of birds other than waterfowl recorded from the Tirari Formation outside of the Kanunka Fauna. Abbreviations additional to those in Methods: cmc, carpometacarpus; tmt, tarsometatarsus; tt, tibiotarsus. CAM4 Quarry is CAM4 Quarry, Camel Swamp Yard, Warburton River. All sites are Warburton River except Waralamanka WH on Cooper Creek
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