The oldest fossil record of Buteo (Aves, Accipitridae) from the Late Miocene of Italy and its evolutionary implications

In this study the presence of Buteo sp. is documented from the Late Miocene (early Messinian MN 13) of Roddi, north-western Italy. The findings are based on an almost complete skeleton discovered within a 1.5-m-thick succession of laminated grey-brown marls, which have yielded numerous fish and plant remains. Despite the limited osteological information that can be obtained from this fossil, it exhibits some morphological characters that support its attribution to the extant genus Buteo, of which it represents the oldest confirmed record worldwide. It has been suggested that Buteo originated from a Neotropical ancestor, colonized Central and North America after the closure of the Panama Isthmus in the late Cenozoic, and reached Eurasia during the Pleistocene, while the Old World Buteo lineage evolved more recently, during the Late Pleistocene. The specimen from Roddi pushes back the divergence between the Old World and New World Buteo lineages by more than 6 Million years earlier than previously thought. Consequently, a revision of the phylogeny of the Buteoninae, including data from the fossil record, and its paleobiogeographical implications is recommended.