Gerandibis

Gerandibis pagana
Conservation status
Extinct
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Pelecaniformes
Family:	Threskiornithidae
Genus:	†Gerandibis De Pietri, 2013
Species:	†G. pagana
Binomial name
†Gerandibis pagana (Milne-Edwards, 1868)
Synonyms
Ibis pagana Eudocimus paganus Plegadis paganus

Gerandibis is an extinct genus of ibis known from fossil remains from early Miocene (Aquitanian) beds in France. It contains a single species, Gerandibis pagana, which was originally described by Milne-Edwards in 1868 as Ibis pagana. Richard Sharpe classified it in the genus Eudocimus, but Storrs L. Olson placed it in the genus Plegadis due to anatomical similarities closer to that genus. The ibises of the genus Plegadis have two natural foramina (holes) in the intertrochlear groove in the distal section of the tarsometatarsus, where as ibises of Eudocimus (and many other species of bird) have one small foramen. P. paganus has two small holes akin to living species of Plegadis.[1] The species was eventually made the type species of a separate genus Gerandibis by Vanesa L. De Pietri (2013).[2]

References

1. Olson, S. L. (1981). "The generic allocation of Ibis pagana Milne-Edwards, with a review of fossil ibises (Aves: Threskiornithidae)". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 1 (2): 165–170. Bibcode:1981JVPal...1..165O. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.510.7434. doi:10.1080/02724634.1981.10011888. hdl:10088/7085. JSTOR 4522847.
2. Vanesa L. De Pietri (2013). "Interrelationships of the Threskiornithidae and the phylogenetic position of the Miocene ibis 'Plegadis' paganus from the Saint-Gérand-le-Puy area in central France". Ibis. 155 (3): 544–560. doi:10.1111/ibi.12062.