Iberomesornis
| Iberomesornis | ||||||||||||
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Reconstruction of Iberomesornis in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Barremium ( Lower Cretaceous ) | ||||||||||||
| 130 to 125 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Iberomesornis | ||||||||||||
| Sanz & Bonaparte , 1992 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Iberomesornis (Greek: “Spanish bird in between”) is an extinct genus of birds from the Lower Cretaceous Period . The first and only fossil was discovered in 1985 in Las Hoyas in the Spanish province of Cuenca anddescribedas Iberomesornis romerali in1992.
features
Iberomesornis was a small bird the size of a house sparrow with a head-to-trunk length of less than four inches. The pelvis and legs remained in a primitive state reminiscent of Archeopteryx , while the shoulder girdle and wings were more developed and are reminiscent of the conditions in the Ornithurae , to which the modern birds (Neornithes) also belong.
The authors of the first description , Sanz and Bonaparte, concluded that the early evolution of birds was initially characterized by the development of wings, shoulder girdles and a pygostyle , the anatomical prerequisites for birds' full flight ability.
The claws of Iberomesornis were already strongly curved to optimize sitting on branches.
literature
- Alan Feduccia : The Origin and Evolution of the Birds. 2nd ed., Yale University Press, New Haven / London 1999, ISBN 0300078617 .
