Minerva (bird)

Minerva Temporal range: Eocene
Ungual phalanx fossil from Minerva antiqua
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Strigiformes
Family:	† Protostrigidae
Genus:	† Minerva Shufeldt, 1915
Species
M. antiqua (Shufeldt, 1913) M. californiensis (Howard, 1965) M. leptosteus (Marsh, 1871) M. lydekkeri (Shufeldt, 1913) M. saurodosis Wetmore, 1921
Synonyms
Protostrix Wetmore, 1933

Minerva is an extinct genus of owls in the prehistoric family Protostrigidae from the Eocene of North America. Described in 1915 by R. W. Shufeldt, some of the bones of Minerva were interpreted as belonging to an edentate mammal by Alexander Wetmore in 1933, who assigned the remaining bones to the new genus Protostrix. Analysis in 1983 re-established the genus Minerva was avian. ^{[1] [2]}

References

1. Mourer-Chauviré, Cécile; Robert Wilson Shufeldt (1983). "Minerva antiqua (Aves, Strigiformes), an owl mistaken for an edentate mammal". American Museum Novitates (2773). hdl:2246/5314.
2. Kurochkin, E. N.; Dyke, G. J. (2011). "The first fossil owls (Aves: Strigiformes) from the Paleogene of Asia and a review of the fossil record of Strigiformes". Paleontological Journal. 45 (4): 445–458. doi:10.1134/S003103011104006X. S2CID   84397725.

Fossil claw of Minerva antiqua