Paraprefica
| Paraprefica | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Paraprefica kelleri |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||
| Lower Eocene to Middle Eocene | ||||||||
| ~ 48.6 to ~ 40.4 million years | ||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||
| Paraprefica | ||||||||
| Mayr , 2005 | ||||||||
| species | ||||||||
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Paraprefica is an extinct genus of birds belonging tothe swallow-like order . Thegenus, which isclosely related to today's day sleepers , livedin Europeduring the Lower and Middle Eocene . The fossils, some of which are very well preserved, are only known from the Messel pit in Hesse .
description
Paraprefica was very similar in appearance to the recent day sleeper species, all of which have a stocky body with a large, rounded head and relatively long tail feathers. In addition, the short beak and the greatly enlarged palatal bones, which lead to an extremely wide beak gap , can also be found in Paraprefica . The legs were shortened but had strong toes and were probably well suited to gripping a branch, as day sleepers do during daytime hours. A striking difference is the significantly longer and slimmer carpometacarpus - a bone brace existing in birds, formed from several carpal and metacarpal bones . Despite this feature, Paraprefica had an overall smaller wingspan than today's members of the day- sleeper family.
Paleoecology
So far, paraprefica fossils have only been found in the oil shale of the Messel Pit, which is the deposits of a deep maar lake from the Eocene era . Overall, the climate was warmer than today and in Central Europe roughly corresponded to that of today's South America , the main area of distribution for modern day sleepers. The lake was probably surrounded by tropical rainforest . Paraprefica shared its habitat, for example, with early primates ( Darwinius ), marsupials ( Mimoperadectes ) and other birds such as Gastornis . The lake itself was populated by mud fish and bonefish as well as turtles ( Allaeochelys ).
Systematics
Paraprefica is currently the only recognized genus of fossil day sleepers. Two species have been described so far on the basis of several well-preserved skeletal finds from Messel. The finds are dated to a period of 48.6 to 40.4 mya . The fossil remains were initially wrongly assigned to the also extinct genus Prefica , which is known from North America and is closely related to today's fat swallow . However, later investigations came to the result that the commonalities found only had to be plesiomorphic characteristics - which were developed in the common tribal history before the genus was separated - and that the representatives of Paraprefica are more likely to be assigned to day sleepers. For the fossils found in Germany, the own genus Paraprefica was created within the family Nyctibiidae. For the now exclusively Neotropical family, a historical spread in the Old World could be proven.
- P. kelleri Mayr , 1999
- P. major Mayr , 1999
Web links
literature
- Gerald Mayr: Caprimulgiform birds from the Middle Eocene of Messel (Hessen, Germany) . In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . tape 19 , no. 3 , 1999, p. 521-532 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Gerald Mayr: Avian Evolution: The Fossil Record of Birds and its Paleobiological Significance . 1st edition. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford 2017, ISBN 978-1-119-02076-9 , pp. 137-138 .
- ↑ Gerald Mayr: Paleogene Fossil Birds . Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-540-89627-2 , pp. 128 .
- ^ Stephan FK Schaal, Krister T. Smith, Jörg Habersetzer: Messel - A fossil tropical ecosystem . Senckenberg Books, Frankfurt am Main 2018, ISBN 978-3-510-61410-3 .
- ↑ Gerald Mayr: The Palaeogene Old World Potoo Paraprefica Mayr, 1999 (Aves, Nyctibiidae): its osteology and affinities to the New World Preficinae . In: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology . tape 3 , no. 4 , 2005, p. 359-370 , doi : 10.1017 / S1477201905001653 .
- ↑ Paraprefica kelleri. In: fossilworks.org. Macquarie University, accessed December 6, 2019 .
- ↑ Paraprefica major. In: fossilworks.org. Macquarie University, accessed December 6, 2019 .