Nystalus Cabanis & Heine, 1863

Nascimento, Rafael S. & Silveira, Luís Fábio, 2024, Fossil and subfossil birds of Brazil, Zoologia (e 23079) 41, pp. 1-234 : 160-161

Nystalus Cabanis & Heine

531. Nystalus chacuru (Vieillot)

Quaternary – MG

Capito melanotis [in part] – Lund 1841d: 18.

Capito [in part] – Giebel 1847: 20.

Capito [in part] – Pictet 1853: 414.

“un Tamatia ( Capito de Temminck )” [in part] – Liais 1872: 303.

Bucco chacuru – Winge 1887: 45–46.

Bucco chacurú [sic] – Goeldi 1894: 247–248.

Capito sp. (“angeblich aus den Knochenhöhlen Brasiliens”) [in part] – Lambrecht 1933: 769.

Bucco chacuru – Lambrecht 1933: 775.

Bucco (= Nystalus ) chacuru – Storer 1960: 80.

Nystalus chacuru – Fisher 1967: 752.

“ Capito Vieillot 1816 sp. , prob. neospecies C. niger (P.L.S. Müller 1776) ” – Fisher 1967: 752.

Nystalus chacuru – Brodkorb 1971: 257.

Nystalus chacuru [ Bucco chacuru ] – Mones 1986: 97. Nystalus chacuru – Cuello 1988: 59.

Nystalus chacuru – Unwin 1993: 730.

Nystalus chacuru – Nascimento and Silveira 2020: 494.

Winge (1887) reported bones of several individuals from Lapa da Escrivânia V, represented by the mandible, scapula, coracoid, humerus (in large number), ulna, radius, carpometacarpus, femur, tibiotarsus, and tarsometatarsus. Additionally, there is a mandible from Lapa da Escrivânia III, two humeri (one left and one right) from a “saltpeter cave near Escrivânia”, some bones of unknown origin, and bones of several individuals of recent age [28], of which Lund determined a humerus. Winge also noted it is easily distinguishable from Malacoptila striata by the humerus and other bones.

Fisher (1967) attributed a possible record of the capitonid Capito niger from Curvelo or Lagoa Santa based on Capito melanotis of Lund (1841d). However, C. melanotis is synonymous with Nystalus chacuru and, therefore, not a capitonid like C. niger .

? Piciformes Meyer & Wolf

† Gracilitarsidae Mayr

† Eutreptodactylus Baird & Vickers-Rich

532. † Eutreptodactylus itaboraiensis Baird & Vickers-Rich

Early Eocene – RJ

Fig. 31B

Type locality: São José de Itaboraí , Brazil .

Etymology: Eutreptodactylus, Greek for “easily changeable toe”, and itaboraiensis , referring to the São José de Itaboraí Basin.

“ Aves , undetermined (small birds)” [in part?] – Rich 1979: 323, 324.

Eutreptodactylus itaboraiensis sp. nov. [new genus and species] – Baird and Vickers-Rich 1997: 123–127, figs 1–2. Eutreptodactylus itaboraiensis – Bergqvist et al. 2006: 55.

Baird and Vickers-Rich (1997) described this new genus and species from material collected by Ney Vidal in 1950 in the São José de ItaboraÍ Basin. Small avian fossils in this locality had been mentioned by Rich eighteen years before this study ( Rich 1979).

The material is an incomplete and slightly abraded distal fragment of a right tarsometatarsus (MN 4083-V) with all three trochleae damaged. It was subsequently lost after the study, but photographs, figures, and a cast of the original specimen were housed in the MN collection. The fossil suggests facultative zygodactyly or semizygodactyly ( Mayr 2009). Mayr et al. (2011a) reported the distal end of a left tibiotarsus (MN 4119-V) from the same locality that may belong to this species (see Neornithes indet. 4).

The taxon was initially attributed to the Cuculidae and then considered its oldest and most primitive representative, possibly belonging to a new subfamily. However, Baird and Vickers-Rich also noted that without the original fossil, more material is necessary before any higher taxon can be confidently erected. Mourer-Chauviré (1999) found it quite similar to the genus Sylphornis , from the middle Eocene of France, suggesting it should be included in the Sylphornithidae . Mayr (2001) contested the attribution to the Cuculidae and found similarities between E. itaboraiensis and Gracilitarsus mirabilis ( Gracilitarsidae ), of the middle Eocene of Messel deposits in Germany, and raised the possibility that they are close relatives. Later, Mayr (2005) included E. itaboraiensis and Neanis schucherti from the early Eocene of the Green River Formation ( USA) in the Gracilitarsidae . He presented a phylogenetic analysis that resulted in a clade composed of Gracilitarsidae , Sylphornithidae , and the Piciformes crown group, but later reiterated ( Mayr 2009, 2016, 2022) that this hypothesis is not yet well established.

Piciformes Meyer & Wolf

Ramphastidae Vigors 533. Ramphastidae indet. 1

Holocene – RS

Ramphastos dicolorus – Dias 2003: 149, footnote.

Ramphastos dicolorus – Dias 2004a: 37.

Ramphastidae – Jacobus and Rosa 2013: 245.

Jacobus and Rosa (2013) reported ramphastid remains from the Deobaldino (RS-S-395) rock shelter in Santo Antônio da Patrulha, Rio Grande do Sul. Previously, this record was briefly mentioned as Ramphastos dicolorus by Dias (2003, 2004a).

534. Ramphastidae indet. 2

Holocene – RS

Ramphastidae – Jacobus 2004: 99.

Jacobus (2004) reported ramphastid remains from the Dalpiaz (RS-LN-1) rock shelter in Maquiné, Rio Grande do Sul. The material is deposited in the MARSUL collection.