''Caerulonettion'' (meaning "

teal alt=American teal duck (male), Green-winged teal (male) Teal is a greenish-blue color. Its name comes from that of a bird—the Eurasian teal (''Anas crecca'')—which presents a similarly colored stripe on its head. The word is often used ...

") is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus of

anatid The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating on ...

birds from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

Epoch of Europe. The genus contains a single species, ''C. natator'', known from various limb and girdle bones. The ''Caerulonettion'' fossil material was originally assigned to various other anatid genera before being recognized as a distinct genus.

Discovery and naming

Fossil material assigned to ''Caerulonettion'' has been found in Early Miocene rocks of France and the Czech Republic, as well as early Middle Miocene rocks of Southern Germany. The

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes ...

specimen,

MNHN The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the ...

Av-6428, consists of a left

ulna The ulna or ulnar bone (: ulnae or ulnas) is a long bone in the forearm stretching from the elbow to the wrist. It is on the same side of the forearm as the little finger, running parallel to the Radius (bone), radius, the forearm's other long ...

found in the

Saint-Gérand-le-Puy Saint-Gérard-le-Puy (; ) is a commune in the Allier department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. Geography Much of the local rock is limestone common in the Auvergne, known as ''indusial'', because of the cases, or ''indusiae'', o ...

fossil locality of France. Additional bones known from nearby localities include right

coracoid A coracoid is a paired bone which is part of the shoulder assembly in all vertebrates except therian mammals (marsupials and placentals). In therian mammals (including humans), a coracoid process is present as part of the scapula, but this is n ...

humeri The humerus (; : humeri) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extremity consists of ...

ulnae The ulna or ulnar bone (: ulnae or ulnas) is a long bone in the forearm stretching from the elbow to the wrist. It is on the same side of the forearm as the little finger, running parallel to the radius, the forearm's other long bone. Longer an ...

carpometacarpi The carpometacarpus is a bone found in the hands of birds. It results from the fusion of the carpal and metacarpal bone, and is essentially a single fused bone between the wrist and the knuckles. It is a smallish bone in most birds, generally flatt ...

femora The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg. The top of the femur fits in ...

, and

tibiotarsi The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia. A similar structure also occurred in the Mesozoic Heterodontosauridae. These sm ...

. Partial left coracoids from the Sandelshausen locality of Germany and the Dolniche locality of Czech Republic have also been assigned to ''Caerulonettion''. Before being assigned to its own distinct genus, the fossil material was first considered to be a species of ''

Anas ''Anas'' is a genus of dabbling ducks. It includes the pintails, most teals, and the mallard and its close relatives. It formerly included additional species but following the publication of a molecular phylogenetic study in 2009 the genus was s ...

'' in 1867, '' Querquedula'' in 1964, '' Dendrochen'' in 1983, and '' Mionetta'' from 1988 to 2023. In 2023, Nikita Zelenkov described ''Caerulonettion natator'' as a new combination for the extinct duck "''Mionetta''" ''natator'' based on these fossil remains. The generic name, "''Caerulonettion''", combines the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word caeruleus, the name of a

azure Azure may refer to: Color * Azure (color), a hue of blue ** Azure (heraldry) ** Shades of azure, shades and variations Arts and media * ''Azure'' (Art Farmer and Fritz Pauer album), 1987 * Azure (Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell album), 2013 * ...

color, and ''Nettion'', an obsolete genus name for

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

teals Teal is a blue-green color . Teal or TEAL may also refer to: Ducks * some members of the subfamily Anatinae (dabbling ducks): ** some members of the genus ''Anas'': *** Cape teal (''Anas capensis'') *** Red-billed teal or red-billed duck (''Anas ...

, which is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

"nēttion", meaning "small duck". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, "''natator''", means "swimmer" in Latin.

Description and classification

The preserved coracoids of ''Caerulonettion'' are proportionally and structurally similar to those seen in the extant ''

Malacorhynchus ''Malacorhynchus'' is a genus of duck within the family Anatidae. It was established in 1831 by English ornithologist William Swainson, when he proposed moving the pink-eared duck into a subgenus (''Malacorhynchus'') based on unique characters o ...

'' (

pink-eared duck The pink-eared duck (''Malacorhynchus membranaceus'') is a species of duck found in Australia. Description The pink-eared duck has a large spatulate bill like the Australasian shoveler, but is smaller at 38–40 cm length. Its brown back ...

) of Australia. However, since ''Caerulonettion'' is only known from limited fossil material, it is not known if the two genera are

phylogenetically In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data ...

close. Zelenkov (2023) interpreted the similar coracoid structure as being a

plesiomorphic In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, an ...

trait. The coracoids of the '' Pinpanetta tedfordi'', one of the oldest anatids, are also generally similar. Zelenkov further suggested that ''Caerulonettion'' represents a more derived anatid than ''Mionetta'', and a possible ancestor of the

Middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), epoch made up of two Stage (stratigraphy), stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene. The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0. ...

Mioquerquedula ''Mioquerquedula'' is an extinct genus of ducks from the Middle Miocene containing two species, ''M. minutissima'' and ''M. velox''. It was one of the smallest anseriforms known. The genus was erected by Nikita Zelenkov and Evgenii Nik ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q123591879 Neogene birds of Europe Extinct birds of Europe Prehistoric bird genera Birds described in 2023 Fossil taxa described in 2023 Anatidae