A NEW CRANE (AVES: GRUIDAE) FROM THE MIOCENE OF GERMANY
Ursula B. Göhlich, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2003, 23(2):387–393
Described here is a new fossil species of crane (Aves: Gruidae), Palaeogrus mainburgensis, sp. nov., from the early middle Miocene fossil site of Sandelzhausen in Bavaria, southern Germany. The study includes morphological and metric comparisons with all known Tertiary gruids from Eurasia, along with a discussion of the taxonomic distribution of morphological characters in fossil gruids. The new species is represented by a distal tibiotarsus, a proximal tarsometatarsus, and a distal radius. It is the smallest species within the genus Palaeogrus that is known from the middle Eocene through the early Miocene. Palaeogrus mainburgensis, sp. nov. is the only known gruid taxon from Sandelzhausen.