Messelrallen
| Messelrallen | ||||||||||||
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Messelornis fossil in the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Milano |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Paleocene to Lower Oligocene | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Messelornithidae | ||||||||||||
| Hesse , 1988 | ||||||||||||
The Messelrallen (Messelornithidae) are an extinct family of rail-like birds that were found in Europe and North America from the Paleocene to the Lower Oligocene . The family was described in 1988 together with the genus Messelornis and the type species Messelornis cristata .
features
Knife claws reached about pond claws - up to mallard size , had noticeably long legs with a short thigh bone and a long tibiotarsus (lower leg bones of birds) and tarsometatarsus ("running leg") compared to the entire leg length . The toes were short; the middle toe was always shorter than the tarsometatarsus. On the fourth toe, the fourth phalanx was longer than the third. The wings were short too. The ulna was curved and its proximal end ( olecranon ) near the middle of the body was short, blunt and broad. The carpometacarpus (fused metacarpal bones) had a broad extensor process (extensor tendon attachment). The upper beak ended in a slightly hook-shaped point, the nostrils sat far forward.
Genera
- Itardiornis , (France ( phosphorite layers from Quercy ))
- Messelornis , (including Messel Pit , Green River Formation )
- Pellornis , ( Denmark ( Fur formation ))
- Walbeckornis , (Paleocene fissure fillings near Walbeck )
Systematics
When it was first described, it was assumed that the Messel rails are closely related to the New Caledonian kagu ( Rhynochetos jubatus ) and the South American sun rail ( Eurypyga helias ). Today it is more likely that they are the sister group of a common clade of rush rushes (Heliornithidae) and rallies (Rallidae).
literature
- Angelika Hesse: The † Messelornithidae - a new family of crane-like (Aves: Gruiformes: Rhynocheti) from the Tertiary of Europe and North America. Journal für Ornithologie, January 1988, Volume 129, Issue 1, Pages 83-95, DOI: 10.1007 / BF01641534 , ISSN 0021-8375
- Gerald Mayr: Phylogenetic relationships of the early Tertiary Messel rails (Aves, Messelornithidae). (PDF; 1.1 MB) Senckenbergiana lethaea, 2004, 84, (1/2), 317 - 322
- Sara Bertelli, Luis M. Chiappe & Gerald Mayr: A new Messel rail from the Early Eocene Fur Formation of Denmark (Aves, Messelornithidae) , Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Vol. 9, Issue 4, December 2011, pages 551-562, DOI : 10.1080 / 14772019.2010.538730
