Catalogue of Fossil Birds, Part 3 (Ralliformes, Ichthyornithiformes, Charadriiformes)

Abstract

The third installment of the Catalogue of Fossil Birds treats 84 families comprising the orders Ralliformes, Ichthyornithiformes, and Charadriiformes. The species included in this section number 366, of which 215 are paleospecies and 151 are neospecies. With the addenda of 14 paleospecies, the three parts now published treat 1,236 species, of which 771 are paleospecies and 465 are living or recently extinct.

The nominal order Diatrymiformes is reduced in rank to a suborder of the Ralliformes, and several generally recognized families are reduced to subfamily status. These include Geranoididae and Eogruidae (to Gruidae); Brontornithidae (to Phorusrhacidae); Bathornithidae, Psilopteridae, and "Hermosiornithidae" (to Cariamidae); Rostratulidae, Charadriidae, Phalaropodidae, and Haematopodidae (to Scolopacidae); Presbyornithidae (to Recurvirostridae); Rhegminornithidae (to Jacanidae); and Mancallidae (to Alcidae).

New taxa include the family Gryzajidae (for Gryzaja odessana Zubareva, in suborder Otides); the subfamilies Palaeociconiinae (for Palaeociconia Moreno and Mercerat, in Phorusrhacidae) and Prophororhacinae (for Prophororhacus Rovereto, in Cariamidae); the genus Eortyx (for Tringa? hoffmanni Gervais, in Gallinuloidinae); and the species Gallinula kansarum (Upper Pliocene, Kansas), Eogrus wetmorei (Upper Miocene, Inner Mongolia), Limosa ossivallis (Lower Pliocene, Florida), and Erolia ennouchii (new name for Totanus minor Ennouchi, preoccupied).