Stirton’s pseudotoothed bird

Stirton’s pseudotoothed bird was described from a partial skull with portions of the upper and lower mandibles plus a crushed femur contained in a single calcareous concretion found on Motunau Beach, North Canterbury. Its age is uncertain but probably Late Pliocene (3.5 million years ago), making it one of the youngest named species in the family.

Pelagornithids (pseudotoothed birds) were gigantic marine birds of uncertain relationships. They had a worldwide distribution between the late Paleocene and the end of the Pliocene (56-3 million years ago). The smallest species were the size of an albatross, and the largest species had wingspans of 5-6 metres. Stirton’s pseudotoothed bird was one of the smaller species.

The holotype (CMNZ AV 20569, incomplete skull and jaws) is held in Canterbury Museum. The species was named after Dr R.A. Stirton of the University of California, who recognised the relationships of the specimen during a visit to Christchurch. The species was originally described in the genus Pseudodontornis, but was moved to the monotypic genus Neodontornis in 1976, and then to Pelagornis in 2010.

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References

Harrison, C.J.O.; Walker, C.A. 1976. A review of the bony-toothed birds (Odontopterygiformes): with descriptions of some new species. Tertiary Research Special Paper 2: 1-62. London, Tertiary Research Group.

Howard, H.; Warter, S.L. 1969. A new species of bony-toothed bird (Family Pseudodonthornithidae [sic]) from the Tertiary of New Zealand. Records of Canterbury Museum 8: 345-357.

Mayr, G.; Rubilar-Rogers, D. 2010. Osteology of a new giant bony-toothed bird from the Miocene of Chile, with a revision of the taxonomy of Neogene Pelagornithidae. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 30: 1313-1330.

Olson, S. L. 1985. The fossil record of birds. Pages 79-238 in Farner, D.S.; King, J.R.; Parkes, K.C. (eds) Avian biology, vol. 8. New York, Academic Press.