''Eopelecanus'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

pelican Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before ...

from the

Birket Qarun Formation Birket is a small town in Lolland Municipality, Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign ...

in the Wadi El Hitan in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...

, dating to the late

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

(

Priabonian The Priabonian is, in the ICS's geologic timescale, the latest age or the upper stage of the Eocene Epoch or Series. It spans the time between . The Priabonian is preceded by the Bartonian and is followed by the Rupelian, the lowest stage ...

). The holotype, a right

tibiotarsus 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 ...

discovered in 2008, represents the oldest record of pelicans to date, the only named fossil pelican to date and only one species is known, ''E. aegyptiacus''.

History and naming

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...

specimen of ''Eopelecanus'', a nearly complete

designated MUVP 505, was discoverd in 2008 in the sandstone strata of the upper

within the Egyptian "Valley of Whales". A cast of the fossil was created shortly afterwards and was permanently stored at the

University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', whic ...

. The fossil was eventually described and found to represent a distinct genus in 2021 by El Adli and colleagues. The name ''Eopelecanus'' means "dawn pelecan", formed by the combination of the Ancient Greek "eos" (dawn) and "''Pelecanus''", the genus name of all extant pelicans. "Pelecanus" itself derives from the Ancient Greek "pelekys" for axe and the masculine suffix "-anus". The species name simply refers to the taxon's presence in Egypt.

Description

Unlike in any modern pelican, the proximal portion of ''Eopelecanus tibiotarsus shows no sinistral twisting of its body, which in extant species reveals the attachment site of the calf musculature when viewed from the front. The attachment site for the medial calf muscle is only weakly developed. The medial edge of the extensor groove, which houses the extensor muscle, and the medial

condyle A condyle (;Entry "condyle"
in
fossa Fossa may refer to: Animals * Fossa (animal), the common name of a carnivoran mammal of genus ''Cryptoprocta'' endemic to Madagascar * ''Fossa'', the Latin genus name of the Malagasy civet, a related but smaller mammal endemic to Madagascar Pla ...

preserves a deep and expanded pneumatic opening. The dorsal end of the lateral

cnemial crest The cnemial crest is a crestlike prominence located at the front side of the head of the tibiotarsus or tibia in the legs of many mammals and reptiles (including birds and other dinosaurs). The main extensor muscle of the thigh In human ana ...

is sinuous, which is not unique amongst pelicans but still sets ''Eopelecanus'' apart from the

great white pelican The great white pelican (''Pelecanus onocrotalus'') also known as the eastern white pelican, rosy pelican or white pelican is a bird in the pelican family. It breeds from southeastern Europe through Asia and Africa, in swamps and shallow lakes ...

, the

brown pelican The brown pelican (''Pelecanus occidentalis'') is a bird of the pelican family, Pelecanidae, one of three species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving into water. It is found on the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to the mo ...

and most specimens of the

American white pelican The American white pelican (''Pelecanus erythrorhynchos'') is a large aquatic soaring bird from the order Pelecaniformes. It breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Central America and South America, in winte ...

. The degree to which the bone is ossified, coupled with its surface texture, suggests that the individual the holotype belonged to was an adult. The holotype bone measures long. Assuming that ''Eopelecanus'' shares similar proportions to its modern relatives, it was approximately the size of the brown pelican and slightly smaller than the

pink-backed pelican The pink-backed pelican (''Pelecanus rufescens'') is a bird of the pelican family. It is a resident breeder in the swamps and shallow lakes of Africa and southern Arabia; it has also apparently extirpated in Madagascar. Taxonomy The pink-backe ...

and the

spot-billed pelican The spot-billed pelican (''Pelecanus philippensis'') or gray pelican is a member of the pelican family. It breeds in southern Asia from southern Iran across India east to Indonesia. It is a bird of large inland and coastal waters, especially larg ...

, making it one of the smallest pelicans.

Paleobiology

Although ''Eopelecanus'' can be clearly set apart from the modern pelican genus, its anatomy is still broadly similar to that of its modern relatives. This, along with pelican remains from the

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but ...

, shows that this group is generally conservative with its morphology and has retained its bodyplan for a majority of the Cenozoic, changing only very little over the course of their evolution. During the

, when ''Eopelecanus'' lived, northern Egypt was situated at the southern edge of the

Tethys sea The Tethys Ocean ( el, Τηθύς ''Tēthús''), also called the Tethys Sea or the Neo-Tethys, was a prehistoric ocean that covered most of the Earth during much of the Mesozoic Era and early Cenozoic Era, located between the ancient continent ...

with large parts of its current landmass flooded. Wadi El Hitan, the Valley of Whales, was located just north-west of exposed land and preserves not just the remains of marine animals such as early whales and sirenians but also terrestrial mammals like the stem-elephants ''

Moeritherium ''Moeritherium'' ("the beast from Lake Moeris") is an extinct genus of primitive proboscideans. These prehistoric mammals are related to the elephant and, more distantly, sea cows and hyraxes. They lived during the Eocene epoch. Description ''Mo ...

'' and ''

Barytherium ''Barytherium'' (meaning "heavy beast") is a genus of an extinct family ( Barytheriidae) of primitive proboscideans that lived during the late Eocene and early Oligocene in North Africa. The type species is ''Barytherium grave'', found at the be ...

''.

References

{{Reflist Pelicans Fossil taxa described in 2021 Pelecaniformes Prehistoric bird genera