La Tour du Valat

Institut de recherche pour la conservation des zones humides méditerranéennes

Titre :	A description of a new species of Brachypteracias (Family Brachypteraciidae) from the Holocene of Madagascar
Auteurs :	S. M. Goodman, Auteur
Type de document :	Article
Dans :	Ostrich (71(1-2) MAR 2000)
Article en page(s) :	318-322
Langues:	Anglais
Résumé :	A single humerus of a ground-roller (Brachypteracias, Family Brachypteraciidae), a family endemic to Madagascar, found at a subfossil site in the southwest (Ampoza) of presumed Holocene age and outside the modern geographic range of this genus, is described as a new species. Currently, the region around Ampoza is dry deciduous forest and does not contain any species of ground-roller. On the basis of the habitat preferences of the two extant species of Brachypteracias, both occurring in humid forests, as well as other subfossils recovered at Ampoza, it is concluded that the region was once more mesic. The commencement of this period of desiccation in southwestern Madagascar and associated ecological change occurred before human colonization of Madagascar some 2 000 years ago.

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