Ichthyornis victor, : YPM, 1775

CLARKE, JULIA A., 2004, Morphology, Phylogenetic Taxonomy, And Systematics Of Ichthyornis And Apatornis (Avialae: Ornithurae), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2004 (286), pp. 1-179 : 41-42

Ichthyornis victor

Ichthyornis victor was named by Marsh (1876) and differentiated from the holotype of Ichthyornis dispar (YPM 1450) as being one­third larger than that species ( Marsh, 1876).

HOLOTYPE SPECIMEN: YPM 1452 includes a proximal right coracoid, proximal right scapula, and three fragments of a poorly preserved left humerus (fig. 11). As discussed in the Historical Background, some or all of the material incorporated into the YPM Ichthyornis victor panel mount frequently appears to have been mistaken for holotype of Ichthyornis victor . The YPM Catalogue entry for YPM 1452 included the phrase ‘‘Ma­ jor portions of skeleton’’ for most of the 20th century.

LOCALITY AND HORIZON: Marsh (1880: 199) reported that YPM 1452 was ‘‘found in May 1876, by Mr. H. A. Brous, in Wallace County, Kansas.’’ No locality information was given in the original description of the species ( Marsh, 1876), while the listing in Marsh (1880) was repeated in Brodkorb (1967).

DISCUSSION: Several morphologies described for the holotype ( Marsh, 1876) but not used to differentiate it are also present in the holotype of Ichthyornis dispar . These are now known to be ancestral for more inclusive avialan clades (e.g., expanded deltopectoral crest and dorsal humerus condyle larger than the ventral; see appendix 1: characters 113, 125). Only humeri can be directly compared between the holotypes of Ichthyornis dispar and Ichthyornis victor and, while they are different in size, there are no appreciable differences in morphology. The morphology of YPM 1452 is discussed in the Anatomical Description.

REFERRED SPECIMENS: The majority of YPM specimens were referred ( Marsh, 1880) to this species (see table 1).