Conkling's Roadrunner: A Subspecies of the California Roadrunner?

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Abstract
A fossil roadrunner from interstadial deposits (circa 33,590 B.P.) in New Mexico is identified as G. californianus. Fossil remains from California, dating from the subsequent late Wisconsinan stadial, have been assigned to the same taxon but approximately contemporaneous populations of larger-sized individuals occurring inland have been named G. conklingi. This taxon also has been recognized as surviving into the early Holocene before becoming extinct. This geographic and temporal pattern is probably the result of local adaptations for temperature regulation: hot summer temperatures result in heat stress, resulting in selection against large individuals that otherwise would be best adapted for winter cold; absence of hot temperatures allows selection for large-sized individuals. The inland population of large-sized roadrunners, then, was a geographic and temporal subspecies, G. californianus conklingi.

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