Proardea

Proardea is an extinct genus of heron, containing two species, Proardea amissa ("lost proto-heron") and Proardea? deschutteri from the Borgloon Formation of Belgium. It stood about 70 cm (2 ft 4 in) tall and was very similar to a modern heron in shape. The species is known from rather fragmentary fossils in the area of Quercy, France; dated remains are from Pech Desse, a Late Oligocene locality, but the original fossil, a single right tarsometatarsus (MNHN QU-15720), isn't precisely dated[2] and may have come from deposits as early as Late Eocene in age.

Proardea
Temporal range: Late Eocene? - Late Oligocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Pelecaniformes
Family: Ardeidae
Subfamily: Ardeinae
Genus: †Proardea
Lambrecht, 1933
Type species
Proardea amissa
Other species

Proardea? deschutteri Mayr, et al., 2019[1]

Synonyms

Ardea amissa
Milne-Edwards, 1892
Egretta amissa
Mlíkovský & Švec 1989
and see article text

Proardea was apparently closely related to the true herons and egrets (Ardeinae). As these genera are only known from the Miocene onwards, Proardea possibly was a direct ancestor of today's herons and/or egrets. However, the Miocene genus Proardeola is closely related, or perhaps even synonymous, with Proardea; the former's single species Proardeola walkeri may thus be Proardea walkeri or even identical with P. amissa. The bird described as Ardea aurelianensis may also be identical with P. amissa, which would in that case become known as Proardea aurelianensis. Supposed other species of Proardea, P. perplexa and P. similis, are synonyms of the ibis Geronticus perplexus and the phasianid Miogallus altus, respectively.[2]

References
  1. Gerald Mayr; Vanesa L. De Pietri; R. Paul Scofield; Thierry Smith (2019). "A fossil heron from the early Oligocene of Belgium – the earliest temporally well‐constrained record of the Ardeidae". Ibis. in press. doi:10.1111/ibi.12600.
  2. Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002). Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe (PDF). Praha: Ninox Press. pp. 68, 94, 157. OCLC 156629447. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2006-07-26. The ISBN printed in the document (80-901105-3-8) is invalid, causing a checksum error.

Further reading
  • Lambrecht, Kálmán (1933): [Genus Proardea] In: Handbuch der Palaeornithologie: 311. Gebrüder Bornträger, Berlin.
  • Milne-Edwards, Alphonse (1892): Sur les oiseaux fossiles des dépots éocènes de phosphate de chaux du Sud de la France. In: Sclater, P.L. (ed.), Comptes Rendus du Second Congrès Ornithologique International: 60–80. Budapest.
  • Mlíkovský, Jirí (2002). Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe (PDF). Praha: Ninox Press. pp. 68, 94, 157. OCLC 156629447. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2006-07-26. The ISBN printed in the document (80-901105-3-8) is invalid, causing a checksum error.
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