Ornithologists from the University of Tübingen and the Frankfurt Senckenberg Museum have found the fossil remains of a previously unknown prehistoric goose in the Bavarian Allgäu.
The bird (Allgoviachen tortonica) is said to have been native to southern Germany eleven million years ago.
The bird probably lived on the ground and in trees.
A bird's leg was completely preserved.
"Such complete finds in fossil geese are very rare worldwide," says Madelaine Böhme from the University of Tübingen.
Ruediger Soldt
Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.
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The shape of the claws of the fossil goose bird is particularly revealing: the animals were probably able to bend their claws strongly because they had a strong tendon apparatus.
As a result, they were apparently able to hold on to floating tree trunks in rivers or branches.
"Similar to the whistling geese alive today, which have similar claws, they probably had the ability to sit in trees during rest periods," says Gerald Meyer from the Senckenberg Museum's Research Institute.
The researchers compare the new genus to white-faced gooses and half-gooses, but suspect that they may have been more closely related to the geese living today.
The birds weighed about two kilograms and were 70 centimeters long.
The researchers have already found the remains of more than 140 different species of vertebrates in the Hammerschmiede clay pit.
For example, the first great ape “Danuvius guggenmosi” that walked upright was found in the pit.
The researchers have been digging in the pit since 2011 and have been co-financed by the Bavarian state government since 2022.