A new species of the genus Colaptes (Aves, Piciformes) from the Pleistocene of the Pampean Region, Argentina

The present paper describes a nearly complete skeleton of a new species of Picidae (woodpeckers) found near Merlo, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. The holotype was found in Early-Late Pleistocene (75.000-30.000 years BP) beds of the Jauregui Member. Additional reference material, which can be attributed to this species, coming from Early-Mid Pleistocene (1.200.000-400.000 BP) beds of southern Buenos Aires province, and from Late Pleistocene (126.000-11.000 BP) beds from Uruguay indicates that this species had a large temporal and geographical distribution. The available skeletal material was compared with other species of woodpeckers. Based on these comparisons we conclude that the material corresponds to a new species of the living genus Colaptes. The new taxon, Colaptes naroskyi sp. nov., is notably large, comparable in size with the largest South American woodpecker, the Magellanic Woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus). It differs from other known Colaptes in the very elongate tibiotarsus and tarsometatarsus, and in a proportionally short and slender humerus. On the basis of the posterior limb morphology, the new taxon may have possessed more terrestrial habits than the living species currently inhabiting the region. Colaptes naroskyi sp. nov. constitutes the first paleospecies of woodpecker described for the entire South American continent.