ISSN 0031-0301, Paleontological Journal, 2013, Vol. 47, No. 11, pp. 1331–1343. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2013. 1331 1 INTRODUCTION The Recent herons (Aves: Ardeidae) are considered to belong to five subfamilies (Kushlan and Hancock, 2005), but only two or three have a Tertiary Fossil record (Ardeinae, the Day Herons; Botaurinae, the bitterns; and perhaps Cochleariinae, boat-billed her- ons if Zeltornis ginsburgi Balouet, 1981 is correctly attributed (Zelenkov, 2011)). The ardeid fossil record, most recently reviewed by Scofield et al. (2010) and Zelenkov (2011), extends back as far as the Eocene (see also Sallaberry et al., 2010), although no Eocene taxa have been confidentially assigned to any subfam- ily (Mayr, 2009). Tertiary botaurins are sparse with just two records: 1, Botaurus hibbardi Moseley et Feduc- cia, 1975, from the Pliocene of Kansas and an unde- scribed botaurin from the Middle Miocene Sharga locality in Mongolia (Zelenkov, 2011). Recent herons are a virtually cosmopolitan family, found on all con- tinents except Antarctica, and Mayr (2009) has specu- lated an African origin for the group. The present authors recently described the first pre-Quaternary fossil heron from Australasia: Matuku otagense, inferred to be a basal heron of indeterminate affinities, derived from the early Miocene St Bathans Fauna of New Zealand. Here we describe a second ardeid from the St Bathans Fauna, this time a small fossil bittern 1 The article is published in the original. (Botaurinae) based on two fossil bones, attesting to a diversity of herons in the early Miocene of New Zealand. The St Bathans Fauna The St Bathans Fauna, is currently considered to be of late early Miocene age (Altonian, 19–16 Ma) however as it is poorly dated there is a possibility it is actually contemporaneous with the early Miocene Foulden Maar flora (23.2 ± 0.2 Ma; D. Lee pers comm.). The fossil bearing strata are found in the lower Bannockburn Formation of the Manuherikia Group, in Otago, South Island, New Zealand (Worthy et al., 2007). The sediments were deposited in a shal- low freshwater lake, about 5600 km 2 in area. During this epoch Otago had a warm climate and a sub-tropi- cal flora that included laurels (Lauraceae) casuarinas (Casuarinaceae), eucalypts (Eucalyptus: Myrtaceae) and palms (Arecaceae), in addition to all but one of the 10 conifer genera living in New Zealand today, Nothofagus and araucarias (Araucariaceae) (Pole and Douglas, 1998; Pole et al., 2003; Lee et al., 2012). The St Bathans Fauna includes nearly 40 taxa of birds, several bats and an archaic terrestrial mammal, a crocodilian, a turtle, a sphenodontid and squamates (Molnar and Pole, 1997; Worthy et al., 2006; Hand et al., 2007; Worthy et al., 2007; Worthy and Lee, A Bittern (Aves: Ardeidae) from the Early Miocene of New Zealand 1 T. H. Worthy a , J. P. Worthy a , A. J. D. Tennyson b , and R. P. Scofield c a School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, GPO 2100, Adelaide 5001, SA, Australia b Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, P. O. Box 467, Wellington, New Zealand c Canterbury Museum, Rolleston Ave, Christchurch 8013, New Zealand e-mail: trevor.worthy@flinders.edu.au Received July 18, 2012 Abstract—Herons (Aves: Ardeidae) are rare in the fossil record globally. Fossil taxa referred to Ardeinae and Nycticoracini are known from as early as the early Oligocene and ardeids undetermined to subfamily include some as old as the early Eocene. In Australasia, the pre-Pliocene record is restricted to one species from the early Miocene of New Zealand. On the basis of a tarsometatarsus and a coracoid we describe a new species of bittern (Ardeidae: Botaurinae) from the St Bathans Fauna, of early Miocene age, from Otago, New Zealand. This is only the third and the oldest pre-Quaternary record for Botaurinae globally. Keywords: Fossil heron, bittern, Ardeidae, St Bathans Fauna, early Miocene DOI: 10.1134/S0031030113110154 We dedicate this contribution to Evgeny Kurochkin whose impact in palaeornithology extended worldwide.