RE: Bibliography on Aepyornis

[Evan Robinson <evanrobinson2004@hotmail.com>]

> From: Marco Auditore <maaudito@tin.it>
> Hi to all
>
> I need the references for the papers (overall with osteology and anatomical 
> description) of all species of Aepyornis, the "Elephant bird" of 
> Madagascar, and of the possible aepyornithid Eremopezus, Mullerornis and 
> Stromeria (and eventually other members of the family that I don't know)
> There is someone that can help me?
> Thanks in advance

A nice list of known Mullerornis and Aepyornis fossils and their references 
exists at:
http://www.ornitaxa.com/SM/Fossil/FossilAepyorn.htm

Most papers that I know of look just at Aepyornis Maximus, the only 
completely known skeleton, and compare it to the other ratites. A good 
example is:

Cracraft, Carl. 1973. Phylogeny and Evolution of the Ratite Birds. IBIS 
1974.
Which gives Aepyornis a good look.

Stromaria and Eremopezus are a bit more complicated. Stromaria, previously 
known from a tarsometarsus from the Oligocene of Egypt, and Eremopezus, a 
fragment, combined with Aepyornithoid eggshell, have been called 
elephantbirds. However, according to:

Rasmussen, D.T., E. L. Simons, F. Hertel and A. Judd, 2001. Hindlimb of a 
Giant Terrestrial Bird From The Upper Eocene, Fayum, Egypt. Palaeontology, 
Vol 44, Part 2, 2001, pp. 325-337

A new find of non-didactylous leg bones in Fayum, Egypt has revealed that 
the bones of both Stromeria and those of Eremopezus actually belong to the 
same bird, and that both are actually Late Eocene in age. They conclude that 
this bird, which they now dub Eremopezus eocaenus alone, may not even be a 
ratite. However, this conclusion appears to be based solely on their 
interpretation of how these fossil legs fit into their picture of a walking 
distribution of ratites. They, for example, do not consider the possibility 
that an Aepyornithoid may have swam to Madagascar in the Mid-Tertiary, which 
I find plausible.

While no extant African or Asia birds lay eggs of an Aepyornithoid pour 
pattern, the quantity of eggshell sites containing struthious bones 
(Mourer-Chauvire et al 1996), and both stuthious and aepyornithoid eggshells 
in both southern Africa and southern Asia is striking. It almost appears as 
if the Aepyornithoid eggshell became the Ostrich eggshell! Logically, a 
proto- (pre-didactylous: tri- or tetradactylous) flightless Ostrich ancestor 
must have been present in Asia as well as Africa. In order to have become 
didactylous, it must have done a lot of running. Therefore, although the 
Eremopezus fossils consist of insufficient material to be conclusive, save 
that they are legs of a large non-didactylous bird, they could yet someday 
prove to be closely related to elephantbirds.

What are you working on? If I knew, I may be able to recommend a few 
references. Even if a study of Aepyornis relationships, I would love to read 
or see anything that I have not. Perhaps Chip, a fellow Vorompatra 
enthusiast, or Paleontologist John Harshman may know of something.

Thanks,

Evan Robinson

P.S. I know, ratite fans, maybe Aepyornis? flew to Egypt and Madagascar in 
the form of a Lithorn. However, no Southern Hemisphere Lithorns, or late 
enough Tertiary Lithorns are yet known.

_________________________________________________________________
Don?t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! 
http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/