Pelagornithidae

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Pelagornithidae
Pelagornis skeleton in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC

Pelagornis skeleton in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC

Temporal occurrence
Paleocene to Pliocene
62 to 3.0 million years
Locations
  • worldwide
Systematics
Sub-stem : Vertebrates (vertebrata)
Row : Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Pelecaniformes (or Odontopterygiformes)
Family : Pelagornithidae
Scientific name
Pelagornithidae
Fürbringer , 1888

The Pelagornithidae (pseudo-toothed birds) are an extinct family of very large seabirds that occurred worldwide in the Tertiary. Fossils from the Eocene have been found in Antarctica , England and Nigeria , and from the Oligocene in South Carolina and the Caucasus . From the Miocene the birds have been recorded in France , North America and New Zealand .

features

The birds grew very large, with Osteodontornis orri reaching a wingspan of 4.8 to 6 meters, making it the second largest airborne bird that ever lived after Argentavis magnificens . Pelagornis sandersi is said to have been even larger with a wing span of between 6.0 and 7.4 meters. Their bones were very thin, the skeleton was very light and therefore adapted to gliding. Because the skeleton was so fragile, the Pelagornithidae probably could not dive, but instead caught their food by swimming or in flight directly from the surface of the water, much like recent frigate birds .

Drawing of the skull of Odontopteryx toliapica

On the sides of the large beaks they had numerous tooth-like, bony outgrowths of different sizes on the upper and lower jaw. They differ from all other birds in that they lacked the bony symphysis in the lower jaw. Like the coarse pods , they had a joint between the two parts of the lower jaw and were able to stretch it when fishing.

Systematics

Most authors today place the Pelagornithidae in the order of the coarse pods (Pelecaniformes). Others emphasize that they combine features of the coarse pods and the tubular noses (Procellariiformes) and see them as evidence of a common origin of the two orders or even place the Pelagornithidae in a relationship to the geese birds (Anseriformes).

Genera

literature

  • Gerald Mayr, David Rubilar-Rogers: Osteology of a new giant bony-toothed bird from the Miocene of Chile, with a revision of the taxonomy of Neogene Pelagornithidae. In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology , Volume 30, No. 5, 2010, pp. 1313-1330, doi : 10.1080 / 02724634.2010.501465
  • Alan Feduccia : The Origin and Evolution of the Birds. 2nd ed., Yale University Press, New Haven / London 1999, ISBN 0-300-07861-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gerald Mayr et al. Oldest, smallest and phylogenetically most basal pelagornithid, from the early Paleocene of New Zealand, sheds light on the evolutionary history of the largest flying birds. Papers in Palaeontology, September, 2019; doi: 10.1002 / spp2.1284
  2. ↑ Giant bird with bony pseudo-teeth sets new standards for the wingspan of birds
  3. ^ SL Olson: A selective synopsis of the fossil record of birds . In: D. Farner, JR King & K. Parkes: Avian Biology 8 . New York: Academic Press, 1985
  4. ^ Estelle Bourdon: Osteological evidence for sister group relationship between pseudo-toothed birds (Aves: Odontopterygiformes) and waterfowls (Anseriformes). in Natural Sciences, Verlag Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, ISSN  0028-1042 , Issue Volume 92, Number 12 / December 2005 doi : 10.1007 / s00114-005-0047-0

Web links

Commons : Pelagornithidae  - Collection of images, videos and audio files