Two new waterfowl species (Aves: Anseriformes) from the Upper Pleistocene of Yakutia: The first extinct species of Quaternary birds from Russia

Late Pleistocene Dyuktai Cave on the Aldan River, Yakutia, has yielded one of the richest Quaternary avifaunas of Russia. Waterfowl remains from this locality include bones of a large goose and small smew. The goose is close to the extant Graylag goose (Anser anser), but differs from it in the larger size and some minor morphological features and is described here as a new species, Anser djuktaiensis sp. nov. The smew from Dyuktai Cave is smaller than extant Mergellus albellus and described here as M. mochanovi sp. nov. The new fossil smew is similar in some morphological features to extant Bucephala albeola. The two new taxa are the first fossil species of Quaternary birds from Russia. It is proposed that a number of very large geese found in the Pleistocene of Eurasia apparently belong to A. djuktaiensis. This goose or closely related forms could have been a characteristic element of the Mammoth Fauna.