ABSTRACT

The present study describes an almost complete cervical region of the fossil ostrich Struthio karatheodoris from the Turolian locality of Kerassia (Euboea, Greece). The material comes from two distinct fossiliferous horizons and consists of twelve cervical vertebrae, ten of which belong to the same individual. These specimens are the first remains of a large flightless bird from Kerassia and represent some of the very few findings of the genus Struthio in the sub-Paratethyan (Balkan-Iranian) bioprovince from the late Miocene. The morphology of the cervical vertebrae implies that the neck of S. karatheodoris had similar biomechanical properties to that of extant ostriches, pointing to similar ecological adaptations, relating to food procurement. However, it probably had a more flexible and stronger neck, which might indicate a somewhat different ecology. Furthermore, considerable intraspecific size and morphological variation of the cervical vertebrae of S. karatheodoris is observed. This signifies that S. karatheodoris was not necessarily larger than S. camelus as previously suspected, but their size ranges in fact overlap significantly.

摘要

本研究描述了来自喀拉西亚（Euboea，希腊）图罗利亚地区的鸵鸟Struthio karatheodoris化石的几乎完整的颈部区域。该材料来自两个不同的化石层，由十二块颈椎组成，其中十块属于同一个人。这些标本是来自喀拉西亚的一只不会飞的大型鸟类的第一批遗骸，代表了中新世晚期亚帕拉提亚（巴尔干 - 伊朗）生物省中Struthio 属的一些极少数发现。颈椎的形态暗示S. karatheodoris的颈部具有与现存鸵鸟相似的生物力学特性，表明与食物采购相关的生态适应性相似。然而，它可能有一个更灵活和更强壮的脖子，这可能表明生态有些不同。此外，观察到S. karatheodoris颈椎的相当大的种内大小和形态变异。这意味着S. karatheodoris不一定比先前怀疑的S. camelus大，但它们的大小范围实际上有显着重叠。