Salmila

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Salmila
Fossil of Salmila robusta with clearly recognizable imprint of the fletching from the Messel pit in the Senckenberg Nature Museum in Frankfurt.

Fossil of Salmila robusta with clearly recognizable imprint of the fletching from the Messel pit in the Senckenberg Nature Museum in Frankfurt.

Temporal occurrence
Middle Eocene
47.4 to 46.3 million years
Locations
Systematics
Jaw mouths (Gnathostomata)
Land vertebrates (Tetrapoda)
Birds (aves)
Cariamiformes
Salmilidae
Salmila
Scientific name of the  family
Salmilidae
Mayr , 2000
Scientific name of the  genus
Salmila
Mayr, 2002

Salmila is an extinct genus of birds from the mid Eocene . The genus is known through three fossils, two of which are exceptionally well preserved. All fossils were found in the Messel Pit in Hesse. The only species of the genus so far is Salmila robusta .

features

Salmila was a medium-sized bird, roughly the shape of the recent South American gray-winged trumpeter bird ( Psophia crepitans ), but had shorter legs and was about two-thirds its size. The neck was also relatively short. The nostrils were more elongated than those of the trumpeter birds and the seriemas . The V-shaped furcula (the collarbones of birds that had grown together to form a forkbone) was very strong and robust than that of the Seriemas, the trumpeter birds and the extinct Idiornithidae . In contrast to recent crane birds, the sternum crest (Carina sterni) was rather low. The humerus was strong and thick, the (proximal) end towards the body is large. The ulna was strong but did not reach the length of the humerus. Her olecranon , the proximal end toward the middle of the body, was short. The tarsometatarsus ("leg") was no longer than the ulna. As with the Seriemas and the stilt claws , the tail was very long and rounded at the end. The number of free caudal vertebrae, ie the caudal vertebrae that did not grow together to form a pygostyle , was seven, which is considered a primitive feature among the crane birds. The pygostyle is as big as that of the Seriemas.

Systematics

In the first description Salmila was provisionally placed in the recent family of the Seriemas (Cariamidae), which still occurs with two species in South America. The lack of the derived characteristics of the Seriemas on the hypotarsus, the bony bulge on the back of the bird's foot, and other morphological peculiarities, however, led to Salmila being placed in a family of its own, the Salmilidae. Cariamidae and Salmilidae are sister groups .

literature