A large goshawk species is identified from the Lower Pleistocene, revealing foot structure differences between sexes, indicating evolutionary adaptations.
A new species of goshawks, Astur cimmerius sp. nov., is described based on two complete tarsometatars and two pedal phalanges from the Lower Pleistocene (1.8–1.6 million years ago) of Taurida Cave in Crimea. This is one of the three oldest goshawk finds in the global fossil record and the oldest for the Early Pleistocene of Eurasia, supporting the hypothesis of an African origin for this phylogenetic lineage. Astur cimmerius is considered a likely ancestor of modern A. meyerianus, A. gentilis, and A. atricapillus and could have been widespread in southern Eurasia in the Early Pleistocene. Sexual dimorphism in the tarsometatarsus morphology of modern A. gentilis is noted for the first time, facilitating segregation of females and males by prey size.
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Zelenkov et al. (2025) studied this question.
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