Parabderites minusculus Ameghino
P. minusculus Amegh., 1902, Bol. Acad. Nac. Cienc. Cordoba, t. 17, p. 43.
The species as described by Ameghino is based on a lower jaw with pm. 3 to m. 3. The specific character is the lack of striae on pm. 4. No figure is given but the following measurements indicate the size.
| Lower dentition, | premolar 3 to molar 3 | 9 mm. |
| Lower dentition, | height of mandible under pm. 4 | 4 mm. |
CHAPTER XVI
Birds
In the Deseado beds, birds occur in small numbers, Ameghino having described four species. The remains are generally found as isolated bones, and it is hard to associate the separate finds one with another. Beside this there are very few birds of the early Tertiary so known, as to make separate bones indicate the family or generic relationships.
In the overlying Patagonian beds, a considerable number of species have been found, mostly of penguin-like birds, the various genera and species being based on the tarso-metatarsus. On the upper surface of the Deseado, we found several bones of this penguin-like type, but in all cases they were washed out, so that I have considered them as having come from the Patagonian.
However, we found eight specimens of birds in place in the Deseado, most of which are clearly land birds and belong to genera which are closely related to genera of the Santa Cruz, especially the two genera Phororhacus and Pelecyornis, and of sizes equal to the largest representatives of the two genera.