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A new species of extinct heron from Florida

Started by Logo7, June 01, 2019, 02:03:06 AM

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Logo7

A new genus of extinct heron has been described from the Miocene Montbrook fossil site in Florida. It has been given the new scientific name Taphophoyx hogei ("Hodge's grave heron"), with the genus name originating from the Greek "taphos," meaning "grave or tomb," due to the specimen locality having a high concentration of gompotheriid proboscideans (an elephant graveyard), and the Greek "phoyx," meaning "heron," and the species name originating from Eddie Hodge, the owner of the land the Montbrook fossil site sits on, and the new common name Hodge's tiger heron, which originates from the belief that it is most closely related to the modern tiger herons. The new genus is described based on a fossilized scapula and coracoid found at the site. The Montbrook fossil site is an extremely recently discovered fossil location, with several other potentially new species awaiting publication. Here is an image of the remains used to describe the new genus and a link to the paper describing it.



Paper (open access!): https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/files/3615/5456/8592/vol55no9archival.pdf