Olympidytes
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| Olympidytes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Femur and distal end of the tibiotarsus of Olympidytes | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Suliformes |
| Family: | †Plotopteridae |
| Subfamily: | †Tonsalinae |
| Genus: | †Olympidytes Mayr & Goedert, 2016 |
| Type species | |
| Olympidytes thieli Mayr & Goedert, 2016 | |
Olympidytes is an extinct genus of Plotopteridae, a family of large, flightless marine bird superficially similar to modern penguins but more closely related to cormorants and gannets. It lived during the Late Eocene or the Early Oligocene, in what is today the State of Washington and Japan.[1]
Etymology
The first specimen attributed to Olympidites, a partial postcranial skeleton, was collected in 2012 by Bruce Thiel in Late Eocene to Early Oligocene sediments from the Lincoln Creek Formation. Another specimen attributed to the genus was collected by James L. Goedert in 2012, from Late Eocene or Early Oligocene rocks from the Jansen Creek member of the Makah Formation, in the southwest of the State of Washington. In 2016, those remains were identified by Goedert and Gerald Mayr as belonging to a new genus and species of plotopterid, which they named Olympidytes thieli, based on the holotype SMF Av 608, the fragmentary skeleton found by Thiel.[1] In 2021, Mori Hirotsugu and Miyata Kazunori tentatively referred to the genus, as cf. Olympidytes sp., a fragmentary right tibiotarsus found in Early Oligocene deposits belonging to the lower member of the Kakinoura Formation near Saikai, Japan.[2] With the redescription of the Japanese remains of Tonsala from Japan as the new genus Stenornis,[3] Olympidytes is the only genus of tonsalin plotopterid known from both sides of the Pacific Ocean.[2] In 2021, a specimen once referred to Tonsala (now Klallamornis) buchanani was redescribed as an indeterminate new species of plotopterid potentially belonging either to the genus Olympidytes or Klallamornis.[4]
The genus name, Olympidytes, is formed from the prefix "Olymp-", referring to the Olympic Peninsula in which the paratype was discovered, and the Ancient Greek "-dytes", meaning "diver". The species name, thieli, was given to honour Bruce Thiel, the collector and donator of the holotype.[1]
