Abstract:

The authors describe a fossil avian distal tibiotarsal epiphysis, remains of a cormorant (Phalacrociracinae), differing in age and morphological characters from other fossil cormorants. The fossil material comes from sandy marine deposits from the village of Máriahalom in north-western Hungary, together with the remains of 26 other vertebrate species, mostly marine. The age of the fossiliferous deposit is established in the Late Oligocene, at the beginning of the Chattian stage (MP25–30). The earliest fossil specimens of the subfamily Phalacrocoracinae are known from the Early-Middle Oligocene of North America and Northeast Africa, respectively. The rest of the known specimens are dated to the Late-Upper Oligocene and Lower Miocene. Thus, the fossil described here represents an intermediate age and it is less specialised in morphological characteristics. A new genus and species of cormorants, Praecarbo strigoniensisis described here based on the distal epiphysis of a fossil tibiotarsus.