Two New Species of <i>Aegialornis</i> from France, with Comments on the Ordinal Affinities of the Aegialornithidae

Abstract

Collections from the upper Eocene-lower Oligocene phosphorite deposits of Quercy, France, include numerous fossil elements attributed to two species of Aegialornis. An examination of the humeri in this series disclosed the presence of two unrecgonized species, which are newly described here as Aegialornis wetmorei and A. broweri. Preliminary study of the other skeletal elements previously assigned to Aegialornis indicates that at least some of them are probably referable to the Charadriiformes and the Coraciiformes. The humeri of Aegialornis show closer similarity to Chordeiles than to any members of the Hemiprocnidae or Apodidae, and, therefore, the Aegialornithidae is removed from the Apodiformes and placed in the Caprimulgiformes near the Caprimulgidae.