Does the Teylers white-tailed eagle belong to the Tiglian avifauna of the Netherlands?

Abstract

The clay pits of Tegelen, located near Venlo, Limburg Province, the Netherlands, are known for their terrestrial mammalian fauna of Tiglian age. In 1953, poorly documented but presumably Tiglian-aged bird remains in the Teylers Museum Tegelen collection were identified and described as a white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) by ornithologist G.C.A. Junge. The non-characteristic fossilisation of the material however, prompted usto apply 14C-dating and XRF-analysis (X-ray fluorescence), to verify whether the white-tailed eagle indeed was part of the Tiglian Tegelen avifauna. The 14C-dating firmly placesthe fossil in the Holocene, and the XRF fingerprint of the white-tailed eagle materialdiffers significantly from the Tegelen locality material. Therefore, we can remove, basedon the fossil record, the white-tailed eagle from the faunal list of the Tiglian of Tegelen.