Palaeochenoides mioceanus

Palaeochenoides Temporal range: Late Oligocene (see text)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Subclass:	Neornithes
Infraclass:	Neognathae
Order:	†Odontopterygiformes
Family:	†Pelagornithidae
Genus:	†Palaeochenoides (disputed) Shufeldt, 1916
Species:	†P. mioceanus
Binomial name
Palaeochenoides mioceanus Shufeldt, 1916
Synonyms
Palaeochenoides miocaenus (lapsus)

Palaeochenoides miocaenus (lapsus)

Palaeochenoides is a genus of the prehistoric pseudotooth birds of somewhat doubtful validity. These were probably rather close relatives of either pelicans and storks, or of waterfowl, and are here placed in the order Odontopterygiformes to account for this uncertainty.

Only a single species, Palaeochenoides mioceanus, is known to date. The first fossil assigned to it – a distal right femur piece – was found near the source of the Stono River in Charleston County, South Carolina (United States). At first it was believed to be from the Early Miocene Hawthorne Formation – its specific name, seemingly referring to the "Miocene ocean" as presumed habitat but actually a simple spelling error for "miocaenus", "from the Miocene", that was never corrected and hence became valid – alludes to this. But in fact no Hawthorne Formation rocks were known in the Charleston region when the fossil was found, and consequently modern authors consider a Chattian (Late Oligocene) age more likely and suggest the fossil came from the Cooper or Chandler Bridge Formation. Specimen MCZ 2514, a distal left tarsometatarsus fragment from the Ashley River, was more tentatively assigned to P. mioceanus later on; it was also erroneously believed to be from the Hawthorne Formation.

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Wikipedia