A small Miocene peafowl (Galliformes, Phasianidae) from the high-elevation Linxia Basin of China illuminates the evolution of the clade and its paleobiology

The species of Pavo and Afropavo are known as peafowl, and they occupy a disjunct distribution in southern Asia and central Africa. This distinct geographic distribution has led to debate regarding the origin and evolution of this clade, and the current fossil record of peafowl extends into the Neogene of Europe, Asia, and Africa, pointing to a more recent origin of the disjunction. Here we describe an associated partial skeleton from late Miocene deposits in the Linxia Basin, China, at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, representing a new extinct bird taxon, Eopavo hezhengensis n. gen. n. sp. The holotype is represented by parts of the limbs, synsacrum, pelvis, pectoral girdle, and vertebrae. Morphological comparisons and a phylogenetic analysis place this extinct species as the closest relative of Pavo and Afropavo , nested within the clade Pavonini. Eopavo hezhengensis has a relatively longer spur given its smaller body frame, likely indicating that the holotype specimen derives from a male individual and that this species possibly participated in aggressive, physical contact between conspecific males as some relatives do today. The small body size of Eopavo may be linked to its occupation of a high-elevation Miocene savanna habitat, which is different from the humid forest preferred by its extant relatives. Along with older fossil peafowl records in the Himalayan area dated to 13.6 Ma, Eopavo hezhengensis helps to document the diversity and ancient history of the peafowl clade in Asia, and it indicates that peafowl dispersed from Asia to other continents during the late Miocene and Pliocene, with the Tibetan Plateau as a potential center of origin. UUID: http://zoobank.org/44294174-a06f-487c-b566-d466fafd6165