LOS TINAMIDOS FOSILES ARGENTINOS I. EL GENERO TINAMISORNIS ROVERETO, 1914

Abstract

The autor presents a new revision of Tinamisomis Rovereto, 1914, materials from the upper Pliocene of the Province of Buenos Aires. On the basis of the study of original materials and others recently collected, it is concluded that: (1) until unquestionably associated material is found, the remains that Rovereto ascribed to T. parvulus should be separated into various taxa; in this case, the humerus should be assigned to Nothura maculosa, the carpus-metacarpus, radius and ulna to a new species of Nothura (or to T. parvulus ?), and the femur and tarsus-metatarsus to T. parvulus; (2) assuming that all remains ascribed to T. parvulus belong to the same individual, it is to be concluded that this species cannot be ancestral to any species of Nothura and perhaps to no other living species, probably because it may represent an independent line of tinamids, phylogenetically sterille; (3) Tinamisornis intermedius Rovereto, 1914 ( = Roveretornis intermedius Brodkorb, 1961) is generically separable from Tinamisornis, assignable to Eudromia Geoffroy, 1832. The new combination Eudromia intermedia is proposed.