Class Aves
Order Anseriformes
Family Anatidae
Lophodytes cucullatus—Hooded Merganser // Mergus merganser—Common Merganser // Mergus serrator—Red-breasted Merganser // Oxyura sp.—Ruddy Ducks // Oxyura bessomi—Bessom's Ruddy Duck // Oxyura jamaicensis—Ruddy duck
Mergansers are primarily fish-eating divers.
Fig. 1. Hooded Merganser, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photograph by Jim Rorabaugh.
Sites.
Late Wisconsin: Sandia Cave (Brasso and Emslie 2006).
Late Wisconsin/Holocene: Stanton's Cave (Rea and Hargrave 1984).
Literature. Brasso and Emslie 2006; Ligon 1961; Rea and Hargrave 1984.
Feeding primarily on fish, mergansers imply bodies of water of some size and depth. The Pecos River or associated oxbows are almost certainly the source of the Dark Canyon Cave specimens.
Howard (1971) recorded Mergus ? sp. from Dark Canyon Cave. Since then, a posterior skull has been recovered by UTEP from that site that compares closely with M. merganser. However, insufficient comparative material is available at UTEP for conclusive assignment to species.
Sites.
Rancholabrean: Tule Springs Stein (Jefferson et al. 2015).
Irvingtonian/Rancholabrean: Manix Lake (Jefferson 1991a: cf.).
Mid/Late Wisconsin: Dark Canyon Cave (Howard 1971: ?); UTEP (cf.).
Late Wisconsin/Holocene: Stanton's Cave (Rea and Hargrave 1984).
Literature. Howard 1971; Jefferson 1991a; Jefferson et al. 2015; Rea and Hargrave 1984; Springer et al. 2005.
Fig. 1. Skull of Mergus merganser (bottom) and posterior skull of UTEP 75-362 from Dark Canyon Cave, Eddy Co., NM. Scale in mm.
Sites.
Mid/Late Wisconsin: San Miguel Island (Guthrie 1998).
Literature. Guthrie 1998.
Sites.
Late Wisconsin: China Lake (Jefferson 1991a).
Literature. Jefferson 1991a.
Discussion: Howard (1963) described Oxyura bessomi on the basis of a carpometacarpus and referred ulna and coracoids. Guthrie (2010) found the carpometacarpus to differ from that of Oxyura, but to be similar to small-sized species of the genus Anas and thus leaving O. jamaicensis as the sole species of Oxyura known from the fossil record.
Sites.
Late Blancan/Irvingtonian: Vallecito Creek, Anza-Borrego Desert (Howard 1963).
Literature. Guthrie 2010; Howard 1963.
Sites.
Late Pleistocene: Rancho del Oro (Jefferson 2014).
Late Wisconsin/Holocene: Stanton's Cave (Rea and Hargrave 1984).
Literature. Rea and Hargrave 1984.
Last Update: 27 May 2015