Abstract:
A collection of fossils from the late Pleistocene site
known as La Carolina, located on the arid Santa
Elena Peninsula of southwestern Ecuador, contains 53 species of birds, representing 16 families
and 42 genera, including 7 extinct species previously recorded only from the Talara Tar Seeps
of northwestern Peru. New species of Buteo and
Oreopholus are described. The genus Protoconurns Spillman is synonymized with Aratinga.
Seventy-two percent of the species recorded from
La Carolina were also recorded from the Talara
Tar Seeps. The resemblance between the two avifaunas suggests a similarity in age, habitat, and
climatological conditions at the two sites at the
time of deposition. Evidence suggests that during
glacial periods the currently arid Santa Elena Peninsula was part of a broad, forested coastal savanna extending from central Ecuador south to
northern Peru.
