| Messelornithidae | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Fossil specimen of Messelornis | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Gruiformes |
| Family: | † Messelornithidae |
| Genera | |
Messelornithidae is an extinct clade of gruiform birds, closely related to modern rails. [3] [4] [5] The fossil record are from the Paleocene to the early Oligocene of Europe and North America. [2]
The Gruiformes are an order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like".
The adzebills, genus Aptornis, were two closely related bird species, the North Island adzebill,, and the South Island adzebill,, of the extinct family Aptornithidae. The family was endemic to New Zealand. A tentative fossil species,, is known from the Miocene Saint Bathans fauna.
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 1987.
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 1995.
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 1998.
Caspiodontornis is a genus of the prehistoric pseudotooth birds of somewhat doubtful validity. These were probably rather close relatives of either pelicans and storks, or of waterfowl, and are here placed in the order Odontopterygiformes to account for this uncertainty.
Eostrix is a genus of extinct primitive owls in the family Protostrigidae, along with Oligostrix and Minerva. These owls date from the early Eocene of the United States, Europe, and Mongolia. They have been described based on fossil remains. The genus was created by Pierce Brodkorb in 1971 to place a fossil species known until that time as Protostrix mimica.
Messelornis, also known as the Messel rail, is an extinct genus of gruiform bird, closely related to modern rails. It is the most abundant bird from the Messel Lagerstätte, representing roughly half of all Messel bird fossils with more than 500 specimens known. The fossil record are from the Paleocene to the early Eocene.
Itardiornis is an extinct genus of the family Messelornithidae from late Eocene and early Oligocene. Only one species is described, Itardiornis hessae, from Quercy fissure fillings.
The order Falconiformes is represented by the extant family Falconidae and a handful of enigmatic Paleogene species. Traditionally, the other bird of prey families Cathartidae, Sagittariidae (secretarybird), Pandionidae (ospreys), Accipitridae (hawks) were classified in Falconiformes. A variety of comparative genome analysis published since 2008, however, found that falcons are part of a clade of birds called Australaves, which also includes seriemas, parrots and passerines. Within Australaves falcons are more closely related to the parrot-passerine clade (Psittacopasserae), which together they form the clade Eufalconimorphae. The hawks and vultures occupy a basal branch in the clade Afroaves in their own clade Accipitrimorphae, closer to owls and woodpeckers.
The genus Colymboides contains three species of early loon dating from the late Oligocene or early Miocene. They are considered to be the earliest known unambiguous gaviiform fossils. The genus is widely known from early Priabonian – about 37 million years ago in the Late Eocene – to Early Miocene limnic and marine rocks of western Eurasia north of the Alpide belt, between the Atlantic and the former Turgai Sea. It is usually placed in the Gaviidae already, but usually in a subfamily Colymboidinae, with the modern-type loons making up the Gaviinae. But the Colymboides material is generally quite distinct from modern loons, and may actually belong in a now-extinct family of primitive gaviiforms. The best studied species, Colymboides minutus, was described by Robert Storer as being much smaller than modern loons and not as well adapted to diving.
Qinornis is a prehistoric bird genus from the early-mid-Paleocene epoch, about 61 million years ago. It is known from a single fossil specimen consisting of a partial hind limb and foot, which was found in Fangou Formation deposits in Luonan County, China.
Pumiliornis tessellatus is an ancient bird from the Middle Eocene of Messel, Hesse, Germany. It is described as a wren-sized anisodactyl bird with a long, slender bill and strong hallux. Its species name tessellatus, meaning "mosaic" in Latin, is a reference to its unusual distribution of characters and uncertain phylogenetic placement. It has some anatomical affinities with Cuculiformes, but similar fossils that might be related to this taxon do not.
Gerald Mayr is a German palaeontologist who is Curator of Ornithology at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse. He has published extensively on fossil birds, especially the Paleogene avifauna of Europe. He is an expert on the Eocene fauna of the Messel pit.
Gruimorphae is a clade of birds that contains the orders Charadriiformes and Gruiformes identified by molecular analysis. This grouping has had historical support, as various charadriiform families such as the families Pedionomidae and Turnicidae were classified as gruiforms. It may also have support from the fossil record since the discovery of Nahmavis from the Early Eocene of North America.
Gruae is a clade of birds that contains the order Opisthocomiformes (hoatzin) and Gruimorphae identified in 2014 by genome analysis. Previous studies have placed the Hoatzin in different parts of the bird family tree; however, despite its unusual and primitive morphology, genetic studies have shown the hoatzin is not as primitive or as ancient as once thought, and that it could be a very derived bird that reverted to or retains some plesiomorphic traits.
Bathornithidae is an extinct family of birds from the Eocene to Miocene of North America. Part of Cariamiformes, they are related to the still extant seriemas and the also extinct Phorusrhacidae. They were likely similar in habits, being terrestrial, long-legged predators, some of which attained massive sizes.
Messelasturidae is an extinct family of birds known from the Eocene of North America and Europe. Their morphology is a mosaic that in some aspects are strongly convergent with modern hawks and falcons, but in others are more similar to parrots. Initially interpreted as stem-owls, more recent studies have suggested a closer relationship to parrots and passerines. Their ecology is enigmatic.
Geranoididae is a clade of extinct birds from the early to late Eocene and possibly early Oligocene of North America and Europe. These were mid-sized, long-legged flightless birds. Recent research shows that these birds may actually be palaeognaths related to ostriches.
This is an overview of the paleofauna of the Eocene Messel Formation as explored by the Messel Pit excavations in Germany. A former quarry and now UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Messel Formation preserves what once were a series of anoxic lakes surrounded by a sub-tropical rainforest during the Middle Eocene, approximately 47 Ma.
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