Piscator tenuirostris
| Piscator tenuirostris Temporal range:
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Suliformes |
| Family: | Phalacrocoracidae |
| Genus: | †Piscator |
| Species: | †P. tenuirostris
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Piscator tenuirostris | |
Piscator tenuirostris is an extinct species of cormorant-like bird in the genus Piscator.
Discovery
Piscator tenuirostris is known from an incomplete rostrum, the anterior end of a premaxilla, found in Hordle, England, in formations dating to the Priabonian, the final age of the Eocene Epoch.[1][2] This holotype is now at the British Museum.[3]
It was initially described by Colin Harrison and Cyril A. Walker in 1976, and placed in the family phalacrocoracidae.[4] It was placed in class Aves incertae sedis by Jiří Mlíkovský in 2002.[2]
A similar sample was found in the Late Eocene-early Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation in Faiyum, Egypt, but whether this sample represents P. tenuirostris, another Piscator species, or a different phalacrocoracid is unknown.[1]
Taxonomy
P. tenuirostris is the oldest discovered cormorant-like bird in the fossil record.[1] It is the type specimen of its genus, and the only species of Piscator currently described.[1][2] Other samples, including some in private collections, represent prehistoric phalacrocoracids, but have not been described to more specific classifications.[1]
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