Catálogo de los tipos de aves fósiles del Museo de La Plata

Abstract

The vertebrate paleontology collection of the Museo de La Plata (MLP) constitutes a major Argentine holding and is one of the most complete existing records of vertebrate history in South America. This catalogue records the systematic position and geographic and stratigraphic occurrences of the fossil bird types housed at the Departamento Científico de Paleontología de Vertebrados of the MLP. lt is intended as a research tool of the currenl status of taxonomy and nomenclature. Published reports of fossi l bird research have been limited to descriptions of new species or new occurrences. We intend that this annotated catalogue be synthetic in its treatment and partly complement the Moreno and Mcrcerat's "Catálogo de los pájaros fósiles de la República Argentina conservados en el Museo de La Plata" (Moreno and Mercerat, 1891). The main part of the fossiI bird collection was amassed during a short interval earlier in the XIX century (1886-1898), under the direction of Francisco P. Moreno. During that period severa! independent catalog ues were published (Moreno and Mercerat, 1891: Mercerat, 1891 a, b y c: Roth, 1898) but unfortunately they in elude severa! duplications of numbers and other errors. The majority of the fossil bird collection was never curated . After more than one hundred years from the publication of the Moreno and Mercerat's contribution and sorne posterior movements (with attendant specimen disassociation. breakage, and loss). the fossil bird type collect ion is updated. We initiated a recovery program to restore the utility of the fossil vertebrate Museo de La Plata collection as a rcsearch tool in the earth and life science. The primary purpose in publishing this catalogue in compliance with recommendation 72G of the ICZN) is to present, in organized fashion, critica! data on important specimens in che collection, in order to foster and facilitate futurc research on phylogeny, evolution and historical biogeography of the South American fossil birds.