FOSSIL BIRDS FROM AFROTROPICAL AFRICA IN THE COLLECTION OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY)

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Abstract
Harrison, C. J. O. 1980. Fossil birds from Afrotropical Africa in the collection of the British Museum (Natural History). Ostrich 51:92-98. Although it has a rich avifauna, few fossil birds are know from Africa south of the Sahara. In the present paper 22 species are identified from three Miocene and two Pleistocene localities, 20 being additions to the existing list. A new touraco Apopempsis africanus sp. nov. is described from the Lower Miocene of Songhor, Kenya; and from the same period on Rusinga Island, Kenya, a new stork Ciconia minor sp. nov., in addition to a small flamingo, a hawk and a francol-in. There is evidence of a bustard and a Ciconia stork from the Middle Miocene of Maboko Island, Kenya. In the Pleistocene nine species are listed for Olduvai, Tanzania, and seven for Broken Hill, Zambia. There is some evidence of a shared Afro-tropicai/Palaearctic fuana in the Miocene, and of a larger inland lake bird fauna in the Early Pleistocene of Olduvai, but the Broken Hill material is purely Afrotropical.

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