Piscator tenuirostris
{{Short description|Extinct species of bird}}
{{Speciesbox
| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|Eocene}}
| image =
| genus = Piscator (bird)
| parent_authority = Harrison and Walker, 1976
| species = tenuirostris
| authority = Harrison & Walker, 1976
| synonyms =
}}
Piscator tenuirostris is an extinct species of cormorant-like bird, the only known species in the genus Piscator.
Discovery
Piscator tenuirostris is known from an incomplete rostrum, the anterior end of a premaxilla, found in Hordle, England, in formations dating to the Priabonian, the final age of the Eocene Epoch.{{Cite book |last=Mayr |first=Gerald |author-link=Gerald Mayr |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/302080522 |title=Paleogene Fossil Birds |date=April 21, 2009 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-540-89627-2 |location=Berlin |pages=65–67 |oclc=302080522}}{{Cite book |last=Mlíkovsky |first=Jirí |url=http://www.nm.cz/download/JML-18-2002-CBE.pdf |title=Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe |publisher=Ninox Press |year=2002 |isbn= |location=Prague |pages=268|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520101755/http://www.nm.cz/download/JML-18-2002-CBE.pdf |archive-date=2011-05-20 }} This holotype is now at the British Museum.{{Cite journal |last=Brodkorb |first=Pierce |author-link=Pierce Brodkorb |date=1978 |title=CATALOGUE OF FOSSIL BIRDS |url=https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2017/03/Vol-23-No-3.pdf |journal=Bulletin of the Florida State Museum Biological Sciences |volume=23 |issue=3 |pages=216 |via=Florida State Museum of the University of Florida}}
It was initially described by Colin Harrison and Cyril A. Walker in 1976, and placed in the family phalacrocoracidae.{{Cite journal |last1=Harrison |first1=C. J. O. |last2=Walker |first2=C. A. |date=1876 |title=Birds of the British Upper Eocene |url=https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-lookup/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1976.tb01017.x |journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society |language=en |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=323–351 |doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1976.tb01017.x|url-access=subscription }} It was placed in class Aves incertae sedis by Jiří Mlíkovský in 2002.
A similar sample was found in the Late Eocene-early Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation in Faiyum, Egypt, but whether this sample represents P. tenuirostris, another Piscator species, or a different phalacrocoracid is unknown.
Description
Taxonomy
The genus was introduced by Cyril A. Walker and Colin Harrison in 1976. It was placed in class Aves incertae sedis by Jiří Mlíkovský in 2002. The word piscator is Latin for "fisherman." Other fossils may also represent species in this genus, but they have not been described as such, with some residing in private collections.
P. tenuirostris is the oldest discovered cormorant-like bird in the fossil record. It is the type specimen of its genus, and the only species of Piscator currently described.
See also
References
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