Leptoptilos robustus Meijer & Due 2010, SP. NOV.

Holotype: Associated partial skeleton with wing and leg bones (Figs 3, 5, 7, 9), consisting of the proximal half of a left carpometacarpus (preliminary registration nr LBA-XI-01) and the distal part of a left ulna (LBA-XI-02), an almost complete left femur (LBA-XI- 03), and the distal part of a left tibiotarsus (LBA-XI-

04). The bones are stored at the National Centre for Archaeology in Jakarta (Indonesia).

Etymology: From the Latin robustus meaning ‘strong, robust’, and referring to the large tibiotarsus and the thickness of its cortex.

Type locality: Liang Bua cave, Manggarai Province, Flores, Indonesia at 08°31′50.4″S, 120°26′36.9″E.

Type horizon and age: Sector XI at Liang Bua (Fig. 1) at a depth of 425–470 cm in layers of brown clayey silts (Layer O in Fig. 2) and Late Pleistocene in age (Morwood et al., 2005).

Diagnosis: A large species of extinct Leptoptilos resembling L. dubius in dimensions of the femur, carpometacarpus, and ulna, but with a tibiotarsus wider and deeper than any living Leptoptilos and yet smaller than L. falconeri, and with the following unique combination of characters: pneumatized carpometacarpus with a distinct foramen in the fossa infratrochlearis; femur with well-pronounced muscle scars on proximocranial surface; linea intermuscularis cranialis and linea intermuscularis caudalis with a more lateral and medial location on the shaft, respectively, than extant Leptoptilini; condylus ventralis ulnae pointed, elevated, and projecting distally; tuberculum carpale rectangular in ventral view; foramen in incisura tuberculi carpalis; tibiotarsus with straight shaft and bone wall thicker than any species of Leptoptilos; sulcus extensorius shallow, narrow, and located on medial half of bone.

Apomorphies for the genus Leptoptilos are the pneumatized carpometacarpus with a distinct foramen in the fossa infratrochlearis and the pointed condylus ventralis ulnae. Autapomorphic characters for L. robustus sp. nov. are its large size, the thickening of the cortical bone wall of the tibiotarsus, the absence of a rotation in the tibiotarsal shaft, the elevated and distal projection of the pointed condylus ventralis ulnae, pronounced muscle scars on the proximocranial surface of the femur, and a more lateral and medial location of the linea intermuscularis cranialis and linea intermuscularis caudalis on the femur shaft.