''Galbula hylochoreutes'' is an extinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of jacamar, a small

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

of the order Piciformes. It was discovered in the

La Victoria Formation The Honda Group ( es, Grupo Honda, Tsh, Ngh) is a geological group of the Upper and Middle Magdalena Basins and the adjacent Central and Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. The group, in older literature also defined as formation, is in its ...

of the

Honda Group is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

, at the Konzentrat-Lagerstätte of La Venta in modern

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. These deposits are dated to the Laventan period (

Middle Miocene The Middle Miocene is a sub-epoch of the Miocene Epoch made up of two stages: the Langhian and Serravallian stages. The Middle Miocene is preceded by the Early Miocene. The sub-epoch lasted from 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma to 11.608 ± 0.005 Ma (million y ...

, from 13.8 to 11.8 million years ago).

Description

The species was described from one end of the right

humerus The humerus (; ) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extremity consists of a roun ...

.Rasmussen, Tab, 1997. Birds. In: R.F. Kay; R.H. Madden; R.L. Cifelli & J.J. Flynn (eds.) Vertebrate paleontology in the neotropics - the Miocene fauna of La Venta, Colombia. Smithsonian Institution Press. Despite the poor preservation of this fossil, it has distinctive features that permit the classification of a distinct

: the head of the humerus is larger than that of modern jacamars (''

Galbula ''Galbula'' is the type and largest genus of the jacamar family (Galbulidae) of piciform birds, and its suborder Galbulae. Sometimes, the Piciformes are split in two, with the Galbulae upranked to full order Galbuliformes.Tobias, J.; Züchner ...

''), so its overall size would have also been somewhat greater. The tubercle of the head is robust and the insertion of the humeral-scapular-caudal

muscle Skeletal muscles (commonly referred to as muscles) are organs of the vertebrate muscular system and typically are attached by tendons to bones of a skeleton. The muscle cells of skeletal muscles are much longer than in the other types of muscl ...

is very large, indicating a strong development of the muscles of the chest and wings. ''G. hylochoreutes'' likely had great maneuverability in flight, much like birds in the Tyrannidae and

Meropidae The bee-eaters are a group of non-passerine birds in the family Meropidae, containing three genera and thirty species. Most species are found in Africa and Asia, with a few in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. They are characterised by ...

families, an aspect of its biology that lends to its species name, which means "dancer of the forests" in Greek. Like extant members of its genus, ''G. hylochoreutes'' would have inhabited a jungle environment. Its general appearance would have been similar to the paradise jacamar, '' Galbula dea''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5518222 Galbula Miocene birds of South America Laventan Neogene Colombia Fossils of Colombia Honda Group, Colombia Fossil taxa described in 1997

Description

See also

References