Two swallow species from the early Pliocene of Langebaanweg (South Africa)

coast of South Africa is one of the few fossil sites in Africa dating from the early Pliocene (approx. 5 Mya) (Hendey 1981) and excels in being especially rich in well preserved, though generally isolated, bird remains. Rich (1980: 166) regarded this site as richest pre−Pleistocene bird bone accu− mulation in the world with at least 60 bird species represent− ing among them penguins, tubenoses, parrots and mouse− birds. Studies on seabirds, ibises and other taxa (Olson 1985a, b, 1994) indicated that the Pliocene avifauna is even more diverse than initially thought. Passerines are repre− sented by at least nine species (Rich 1980), but no attempts have been made so far to identify these specimens below the subordinal level. The screening of previously unsorted and unidentified material excavated during the 1960s and 1970s at “E ” Quarry, Langebaanweg, yielded several hundred re− mains of passerines. This sample included five fragmentary humeri that show the characteristics of swallows and mar− tins (Hirundinidae), which are described herein. Material and methods The fossil specimens were compared with specimens of 18 ex− tant swallow and martin species representing ten out of 19 hirun− dinid genera (Turner 2004; Sheldon et al. 2005) from Africa, Australia, Eurasia, and North America (Appendix 1). This taxon sampling included Cheramoeca, Psalidoprocne, and Pseudhi− rundo, that are regarded as basal lineages within Hirundinidae (Sheldon et al. 2005). Unfortunately, no specimens of river mar− tins (Pseudochelidon), sister taxon of all the remaining hirun