An Oligo-Miocene magpie goose (Aves: Anseranatidae) from Riversleigh, Northwestern Queensland, Australia

© 2009 by the Society of Vertebrate PaleontologyThe magpie goose Anseranas semipalmata (Aves: Anseranatidae), the sole modern representative of the family, is endemic to Australia. The fossil record of Anseranatidae in Australia was until now restricted to Pliocene and younger sediments. Here we describe an anseranatid from the Oligo-Miocene Carl Creek Limestone in the Riversleigh World Heritage Property, Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park, in northwestern Queensland, as a new species and genus, based on a coracoid and two scapulae. These fossils extend the known age of the Anseranatidae lineage in Australia to about 25 million years ago. The fossil distribution of Anseranatidae now includes the Paleocene in North America, Eocene and Late Oligocene of Europe, and the Late Oligocene to earliest Miocene in Australia, indicating a globally widespread distribution of the family during the early-mid Tertiary.Trevor H. Worthy and John D. Scanlo