Leptoptilos titan
| Leptoptilos titan Temporal range:
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|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Ciconiiformes |
| Family: | Ciconiidae |
| Genus: | Leptoptilos |
| Species: | †L. titan
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| Binomial name | |
| †Leptoptilos titan Wetmore, 1940
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Leptoptilos titan is a species of adjutant-like stork that lived in Watualang, East Java during the Middle-Upper Pleistocene epoch. It remains mainly consist of a nearly complete left metatarsus that measure around 372 mm in length.[1] Compared to largest marabou stork metatarsus specimen (345 mm), it can be inferred that L. titan was a very tall stork. Only L. falconeri from Africa and South Asia that have longer metatarsi (405 mm). Meanwhile, the more famous L. robustus have shorter metatarsi based on the more recently found specimen (LB-Av-2476) that is 10 mm shorter but have larger shaft dimension than those of L. titan.[2][3]
The discovery of this species and L. robustus show that Southeast Asia is probably the last refugee for giant adjutant-like stork in Pleistocene epoch.[2] Its also noteworthy to mention that L. titan lived alongside an unidentified Aegypiinae vulture which consist of distal portions of a right ulna and radius about the size of white-rumped vulture.[1] This faunal composition can also be seen in L. robustus environment on Flores island that housed vulture species (Trigonoceps).[4]
References
- ^ a b Wetmore, Alexander (1940). "Avian Remains from the Pleistocene of Central Java". Journal of Paleontology. 14 (5): 447–450. ISSN 0022-3360. JSTOR 1298549.
- ^ a b Meijer, Hanneke J. M.; Sutikna, Thomas; Wahyu Saptomo, E.; Tocheri, Matthew W. (2022-07-13). "More bones of Leptoptilos robustus from Flores reveal new insights into giant marabou stork paleobiology and biogeography". Royal Society Open Science. 9 (7): 220435. Bibcode:2022RSOS....920435M. doi:10.1098/rsos.220435. PMC 9277297. PMID 35845853.
- ^ Louchart, Antoine; et al. (September 2025). "A large extinct marabou stork in African Pliocene hominid sites, and a review of the fossil species of Leptoptilos". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 50 (3): 549–563 – via ResearchGate.
- ^ Meijer, Hanneke J. M. (2014). "The avian fossil record in Insular Southeast Asia and its implications for avian biogeography and palaeoecology". PeerJ. 2: e295. doi:10.7717/peerj.295. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 3961167. PMID 24688871.