Macrornis tanaupus Seeley, 1866: an enigmatic giant bird from the upper Eocene of England

A large bone from the upper Eocene Totland Bay Formation of Hordle Cliff (Hampshire), originally described by Seeley (1866) as Macrornis tanaupus and interpreted by him as belonging to a ‘large Struthious bird’, is redescribed and illustrated for the first time. It is not a reptile bone, as previous...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geological magazine 2021-06, Vol.158 (6), p.1129-1134
Main Authors: Buffetaut, Eric, Angst, Delphine
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aves
Birds
bones
Cenozoic
Chordata
England
Eocene
Europe
Geology
Great Britain
Gypsum
Hampshire England
Hordle Cliff
Macrornis tanaupus
Museums
Paleogene
Paleontology
Provenance
Reptiles
Reptiles & amphibians
Stratigraphy
Tertiary
Tetrapoda
Tibiotarsus
Totland Bay Formation
United Kingdom
upper Eocene
Vertebrata
vertebrate
Western Europe
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Summary:A large bone from the upper Eocene Totland Bay Formation of Hordle Cliff (Hampshire), originally described by Seeley (1866) as Macrornis tanaupus and interpreted by him as belonging to a ‘large Struthious bird’, is redescribed and illustrated for the first time. It is not a reptile bone, as previously suggested, but the proximal part of a left avian tibiotarsus. A mass estimate of 43 kg, comparable to that of an emu, suggests that it was flightless. A precise identification is difficult because of the incompleteness of the specimen, and Macrornis tanaupus should probably be considered as a nomen dubium. We exclude Seeley’s interpretation as a ratite, as well as previous attributions to gastornithids. We tentatively suggest that the specimen may belong to a phorusrhacid, which would extend the stratigraphic record of this group in Europe by a few million years. The presence of a large terrestrial bird in the upper Eocene of Europe may have a bearing on the interpretation of enigmatic footprints of very large birds from the upper Eocene Paris gypsum.
ISSN:0016-7568
1469-5081
DOI:10.1017/S0016756820001466