Branta thessaliensis

Taxobox
name = "Branta thessaliensis"


image_width =
status = fossil
fossil_range = Late Miocene, 7.5-6.8 mya
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Anseriformes
familia = Anatidae
genus = "Branta"
species = "B. thessaliensis"
binomial = "Branta thessaliensis"
binomial_authority = Boev & Koufos, 2006

"Branta thessaliensis" is a prehistoric species of black goose known from fossils found in Greece. It is among the earliest known members of its genus.

Described in 2006, it was of similar size to the Canada GooseVerify source|date=August 2007 . It is known from a humerus boneVerify source|date=August 2007, which differs form the living species by a wider distal end of the diaphysis, a dorsal condyle that is more rounded in dorsal view and more prominent compared to the ventral condyle in distal view, and a deeper humerotricipital sulcus in distal view.

The fossil was found in a Late Miocene (Middle Turolian: European Mammal Neogene stage MN12, 7.5-6.8 million years ago) deposit at Perivolaki in Thessaly, after which region the species was named. Both near-shore freshwater bodies and open grassland habitat were found in the Perivolaki area during MN12.

The species provides further support for the distinctness of "Branta" from the "Anser" grey geese by that time. It also suggests that the present biogeography of Eurasian "Branta" - breeding at Arctic and wintering at Mediterranean latitudes - is a product of post-Miocene times, possibly due to range shifts during the ice age era. In this aspect it is notable that such a breeding-wintering range disjunction is less pronounced in the Canada and Cackling Geese of North America, where unlike in there was no W-E barrier (the Alpide belt) barring range shifts in response to the advancing ice.

References

* (2006): The late Miocene vertebrate locality of Perivolaki, Thessaly, Greece. 2. Aves. "Palaeontographica A" 276(1-6): 11-22.