Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia, 45(special issue) 2002

Issue:

VOL 45(special issue) 2002

Keywords:

Gallinaceous birds, Tetraonidae, Neogene, Quaternary, fossil avifauna, Balkans, Bulgaria, evolution of birds, faunal impoverishment

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Tetraonidae VIGORS, 1825 (Galliformes – Aves) in the Neogene-Quaternary record of Bulgaria and the origin and evolution of the family

• Zlatozar BOEV

Abstract:

Bulgaria has a very diversified avifauna of fossil and subfossil Tetraonidae, consisting of at least 9 species. This avifauna is represented by 525 bone finds from 27 avian localities in Bulgaria: 3 Pliocene, 11 Pleistocene and 13 Holocene. The Tetraonidae probably first appeared in the savana-forest habitats of the Western Palearctic at the transition between the Pontian and the Ruscinian. The genus Tetrao first appears in the Balkans and Europe during the Early Pliocene (MN 14), while the earliest record of Lagopus is in MN 15. Four of the nine Tetraonid species in Bulgaria are fossil species: Lagopus atavus JÁNOSSY, 1974, Lagopus balcanicus BOEV, 1995, Tetrao partium (KRETZOI, 1962) and Tetrao rhodopensis BOEV, 1998. Three recent species in the fossil record have since disappeared from the avifauna of the country: Lagopus lagopus (LINNAEUS, 1758), Lagopus mutus (MONTIN, 1776) and Tetrao tetrix LINNAEUS, 1758.