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Kurochkin's pygmy owl (''Glaucidium kurochkini'') is an extinct species of pygmy owl that existed in what is now
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5567271
Pleistocene birds of North America
Kurochkini
Late Pleistocene
Pleistocene California
Fossil taxa described in 2013
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, U.S.A.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
during the Late Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
Epoch.
Discovery and naming
Theholotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...
of ''Glaucidium kurochkini'' is LACM
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...
RLB K9630, a left tarsometatarsus
The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is only found in the lower leg of birds and some non-avian dinosaurs. It is formed from the fusion of several bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) and meta ...
. The paratypes
In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype nor a syntype). Of ...
are left and right tarsometatarsi, LACM(CIT) 155031 and LACM(CIT) 155032, respectively. All three specimens come from the La Brea Tar Pits
La Brea Tar Pits is an active paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, or pitch; ''brea'' in Spanish) has seeped up from the gro ...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. They all also persist to the Pit A in Bliss 29 of the area. Other possible specimens that are from the area but cannot be certainly assigned to ''G. kurochkini'' are K9631, a proximal left mandible
In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...
; K9632, a complete right mandible; K9210, a complete right coracoid
A coracoid (from Greek κόραξ, ''koraks'', raven) is a paired bone which is part of the shoulder assembly in all vertebrates except therian mammals (marsupials and placentals). In therian mammals (including humans), a coracoid process is prese ...
; G50, a complete left 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 ...
; K9635, a proximal end of a right radius
In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...
; K9404, a complete right carpometacarpus
The carpometacarpus is a bone found in the hands of birds. It results from the fusion of the carpal and metacarpal bone, and is essentially a single fused bone between the wrist and the knuckles. It is a smallish bone in most birds, generally flatt ...
; K9350, a complete left femur
The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates with ...
; K984, a complete left tibiotarsus
The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia.
A similar structure also occurred in the Mesozoic Heterodontosauridae. These sm ...
; and K9402, K9422, and K9423, all left tibiotarsi.
Etymology
''G. kurochkini'' was named in2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
by Campbell ''et al.'' in honor of the late Evgeny N. Kurochkin, ornithologist and paleornithologist from the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences (PIN; russian: Палеонтологический институт РАН) in Moscow is among the world's largest paleontological institutes. An affiliate of the Russian Academy of Scienc ...
, for his leading role in Russian ornithology and his many important contributions to the understanding of avian evolution.
Distinguishing anatomical features
''G. kurochkini'' can be assigned to '' Glaucidium'' with certainty, because it shows the features distinguishing it from ''Aegolius
''Aegolius'' is a genus of small true owls. The genus name is from Latin, ''aegolius'', is a type of screech owl that was thought to be a bird of ill omen.
Taxonomy
The genus ''Aegolius'' was introduced in 1829 by the German naturalist Johann J ...
'', even if the two genera are almost identical. These features can distinguish ''G. kurochkini'' from all other ''Glaucidium'' species: a crista lateralis hypotarsi that is short, broad, robust, and projecting equally proximally and laterally; an eminentia intercotylaris that is long anteroposteriorly; the presence of a cotyla medialis with the rim, in anterior view, essentially even with side of shaft; a facies medialis that is wide proximally and lateral to the crista medialis hypotarsi; a sulcus extensorius that does not extend distally to the tuberositas medialis tibialis anticus; and a trochlea metatarsi II with an anterior medial edge relatively straight in anterior view.
See also
*'' Asphaltoglaux'', a very similar species also known from the La Brea Tar Pits *''Oraristrix
The La Brea owl (''Oraristix brea'') is an extinct owl reported from the upper Pleistocene asphalt deposits of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California. It was first described in 1933 by Hildegarde Howard as ''Strix brea'', but this extinc ...
'', another, much larger owl from the La Brea Tar Pits
References