Idiornithidae
| Idiornithidae | ||||||||||||
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Fossil of Idiornis tuberculata . |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Middle Eocene to Upper Oligocene | ||||||||||||
| ~ 50 to ~ 25 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Idiornithidae | ||||||||||||
| Brodkorb , 1965 | ||||||||||||
The Idiornithidae are an extinct, little-researched bird family. Bird fossils were found primarily in the phosphorite layers of Quercy in southwestern France, where they are the most common bird fossils. There are other finds from the Messel pit in Hesse and from the Geiseltal in Saxony-Anhalt.
features
The Idiornithidae were medium-sized birds with slender, long legs and resembled the recent Seriemas (Cariamidae). They were smaller though, some the size of medium-sized pheasants . Of the five genera, only Gypsornis and Idiornis have been handed down through several postcranial bones and only Idiornis tuberculata through an articulated (anatomically related) skeleton including skull. Overall, the leg skeleton was very similar to that of the Seriemas. The hypotarsus, the bony bulge on the back of the bird's foot, was cuboid and had no grooves for the flexor tendons of the toes (similar to the Seriemas). The coracoid (the raven (beak) leg in the shoulder girdle) also corresponded to that of the Seriemas.
The fossils from Quercy, where the climate was more arid and the landscape was more open, show a better adaptation to a soil-living, ongoing way of life than the fossils from the German fossil deposits, where forest was more prevalent.
Genera
To date, five genera have been described:
- Gypsornis Milne-Edwards, 1868
- Idiornis Oberholser, 1899
- Oblitavis Mourer-Chauvire, 1983
- Occitaniavis Mourer-Chauvire, 1983
- Propelargus Lydekker, 1891
Systematics
The Idiornithidae are assigned to the "cariamiden" birds, a group of birds that is named after the recent Seriemas (Cariamidae) and until recently was mostly placed as a subordination to the order of the crane birds (Gruiformes), but has now been elevated to the rank of an order ( Cariamiformes ).
literature
- Gerald Mayr: Paleogene Fossil Birds , Springer, 2009, ISBN 978-3540896272
Individual evidence
- ↑ Proposal (# 290) to South American Classification Committee - Recognize Cariamidae in their own Order, Cariamiformes ( Memento of the original from April 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ IOC World Bird List - Order Cariamiformes
