''Harrisonavis'' is an extinct genus of

flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of Wader, wading bird in the Family (biology), family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas ...

that lived in the

Chattian The Chattian is, in the geologic timescale, the younger of two ages or upper of two stages of the Oligocene Epoch/Series. It spans the time between . The Chattian is preceded by the Rupelian and is followed by the Aquitanian (the lowest stage ...

and Aquitanian epochs. It contains the single species ''Harrisonavis croizeti''. The holotype, a skull, was discovered in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in 1852.

Description and taxonomy

Although first reported in 1852 by paleontologist

Paul Gervais Paul Gervais full name François Louis Paul Gervais (26 September 1816 – 10 February 1879) was a French palaeontologist and entomologist. Biography Gervais was born in Paris, where he obtained the diplomas of doctor of science and of medicine ...

, the fossil was not described in detail and was lost. Several fragments of bills were attributed to ''Harrisonavis'' in the subsequent years. In 2015, another skull (specimen ML StG 203bis) was discovered in

Saint-Gérand-le-Puy Saint-Gérard-le-Puy (; oc, Sant Geran del Puèi) is a commune in the Allier department in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in central France. Geography Much of the local rock is limestone common in the Auvergne, known as ''indusial'', because of the ...

. This skull resembles that of a modern flamingo, albeit with a straighter beak. Based on this fossil, ''H. croizeti'' is the earliest known species of flamingo that filter feeds, and is considered to be closely related to modern flamingos. It was thus initially named as a species of the living flamingo genus ''

Phoenicopterus ''Phoenicopterus'' is a genus of birds in the flamingo family Phoenicopteridae. Taxonomy The genus ''Phoenicopterus'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his ''Systema Naturae'' to accommodate ...

''. Harrison and Walker, who described one bill fragment in 1976, moved it to a new genus, '' Gervaisia'', but the name was already in use for a

millipede Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...

. Kashin renamed the genus to ''Harrisonavis'' in 1978.

Ecology

This flamingo lived in the shallow lakes and lagoons of central France.

Reference

{{Taxonbar, from=Q110269247 Oligocene Phoenicopteridae Prehistoric bird genera