Ciconia sp.

(Figure 4:A)

Ciconia sp. Suárez & Olson, 2003a, Condor, vol. 105, p.151. Referred material. San Felipe I: Distal end of right tibiotarsus, MNHNCu 75.4599.

Description. This specimen differs, according to Suárez & Olson (2003a:151), from the same element in Mycteria americana Linnaeus, 1758, by a wide intercondylar groove (Fig. 4A; very narrow in the living species). The only known specimen of Ciconia sp., has a distal width of 15.4; smaller than in the tibiotarsus of C. maltha L. Miller, 1910 (18.0–21.5, N = 25 [Howard 1942]), and C. maguari (Gmelin, 1789) (17.1–19.6, N = 5 [Suárez & Olson 2003a: table 1]).

Comments. Known in Cuba only from asphalt deposits, where the fragment in discussion seems to represent a new species of stork, not yet described (Suárez & Olson 2003a), smaller than Ciconia maltha, and similar in size to the White Stork, C. ciconia (Linnaeus, 1758) . The only other material in Cuba referable to this genus is a proximal third of tarsometatarsus and a distal end of tibiotarsus, from the thermal baths of Ciego Montero, Palmira Municipality, Cienfuegos Province, originally identified as Jabiru mycteria Lichtenstein, 1819, by Wetmore (1928:2), and reassigned to C. maltha by Howard (1942). This last species has not been registered in Cuba since that date. Agnolín (2009) considered that C. maltha is a posterior synonym of C. lydekkeri (Ameghino, 1891) .