New specimens of a fossil ostrich from the Miocene of Kenya

Fossilised hind limb bones from the late Middle Miocene (approximately 14 million-year-old [MYA]) Fort Ternan, Kadianga West and Ngorora localities in Western Kenya indicate the presence of a new representative of the ostrich genus Struthio. These new fossils represent some of the oldest known records for Struthio yet described, slightly younger than Struthio coppensi, from the Lower Miocene of Namibia. Because the four sub-species of the modern-day ostrich (Struthio camelus camelus, Struthio camelus australis, Struthio camelus massaicus, and Struthio camelus molybdophanes) inhabit the plains of Africa, and as recently as the 1940s, a fifth sub-species was also present in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia (Struthio camelus syriacus), records of Struthio from Kenya and Namibia testify to the much wider distribution of these cursorial birds in the relatively recent past. This is further supported by the very high frequency of ostrich eggshell fragments found across Africa and Eurasia, which vastly outweighs the amount of skeletal material uncovered over the last century.     

First report of gastroliths in the Early Cretaceous basal bird Jeholornis

Seeds preserved in association with the holotype of Jeholornis prima provided the first direct evidence of granivory in any Mesozoic bird. Although this long boney-tailed bird also displays several morphological indicators correlated with herbivory such as reduced dentition and a deep mandible, Jeholornis has not been previously reported to possess a gastric mill. However, this feature is commonly linked to herbivory in theropod dinosaurs and present in at least one sympatric ornithuromorph and the basal pygostylian Sapeornis, which also preserve direct evidence of granivory. Here we describe gastrolith masses preserved in five specimens of Jeholornis. The cluster of gizzard stones is nearly identical in each specimen, consisting of a tightly associated mass of proportionately small stones. Three previously undescribed specimens preserving seeds are also identified. Unlike in Sapeornis and a previously described ornithuromorph, no specimen of Jeholornis preserves both seeds and gastroliths. This may be due to the fact that, unlike in other Early Cretaceous birds, the seeds preserved in specimens of Jeholornis are found in the abdomen, suggesting that Jeholornis may have resembled extant ratites in lacking an esophageal crop. Consistent differences in the preservation and morphology of the gastrolith mass between Jeholornis and other early birds hint at subtle variations in alimentary function among basal lineages. Differences in ingested seed morphology among taxa in turn suggest these functional variations may be at least partially related to differences in diet.     

A New Enantiornithes (Aves) from the Early Cretaceous of China

A new bird from the early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China is described. This new species, Grabauornis lingyuanensis, shares several synapomorphies with the Enantiornithes. The specimen is relatively well preserved. The skeletal morphology of Grabauornis bears close resemblance to that of other Chinese members of this clade. The brachial index （the ratio between the lengths of humerus and ulna） is 0.95, which is close to the average for enantiornithine birds. It indicates that Grabauornis was a rather good flyer, and the presence of an alula in the wing further testifies to this.     

浙江白垩纪镰刀龙类恐龙

浙江白垩系中戴组和赖家组地层先后发现镰刀龙超科(Therizinosauridae)恐龙骨骼化石,证明镰刀龙类恐龙生活区域不仅遍及蒙古、哈萨克斯坦、中国华北、东北、华南及北美西部等地,而且也包括中国的华东。这类曾长期令人困惑的奇异动物,随着近一个世纪的化石材料积累和研究,逐渐显现出它们的演化过程,即由食肉性恐龙演化成以素食为主,也许还兼肉食的杂食性恐龙。随着食物来源的扩展,镰刀龙类成为白垩纪分布很广、对环境适应性很强、演化十分成功的恐龙。浙江天台盆地发现的始丰天台龙(Tiantaisaurus sifengensis)脊椎骨骼化石上的气囊构造(pneumaticity),说明其虽体态硕大,但骨骼结构并不很笨重,而是与现代鸟类骨骼很接近。尽管还不能确定恐龙的气囊能像鸟类的那样可作为呼吸系统的重要部分,但其减轻体重、提高行动灵活性的作用是毋庸置疑的,并再一次证实了恐龙与鸟类在演化上关系密切。     

Biogenic structure and foraging by five species of shorebirds (Charadrii)

Observations were made of the location and duration of foraging by five species of shorebirds in relation to the tubes of Diopatra cuprea (Polychaeta). Infaunal abundances in sites with D. cuprea tubes exceeded those in surrounding tubefree areas (120 individuals vs 29 individuals per 0·01 m², respectively). Of 112 shorebird foraging episodes observed only 4 were in the vicinity of D. cuprea tubes. Despite a greater abundance of prey items around worm tubes, shorebirds avoided feeding in such areas. D. cuprea tubes appear to provide an effective refuge for macrofauna from shorebird predation.     

A review of Late Cretaceous fossil birds from Hungary

We review the previously described Late Cretaceous (Santonian) bird remains from the Csehbánya Formation in the Bakony Mountains of Hungary, augmenting initial work by Ősi ( 2008 ), and add a number of newly collected fossils. All together, the eight fossil specimens so far collected from this site are important to our understanding of avian evolution because they document a large range of taxon body sizes from at least one major lineage (Enantiornithes) and come from a critically undersampled time period in the Cretaceous. Globally, very little fossil bird material has been collected from the middle stages of the Late Cretaceous, the Coniacian and Santonian; most known taxa are either Early Cretaceous (ca. 120 Ma) in age or are from the terminal Campanian and Maastrichtian (ca. 70–65 Ma). Indeed, one of the Csehbánya Formation fossil birds is recognized as a new taxon of large enantiornithine, an avisaurid apparently similar in its largely unfused foot morphology to the Argentine Soroavisaurus and to the North American Avisaurus. The Central European records reviewed in this paper highlight the wide distribution of some Late Cretaceous fossil birds, particularly avisaurid enantiornithines, and lead us to a brief discussion of avian biogeography at the end of the Mesozoic. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pelvic elements of the giant bird Gargantuavis from the Upper Cretaceous of Cruzy (southern France), with remarks on pneumatisation

A synsacrum fragment and an incomplete ilium of the giant bird Gargantuavis philoinos are described from the upper Campanian/lower Maastrichtian Montplo-Nord locality at Cruzy (Hérault, southern France). The ilium provides new information about the pelvic morphology of Gargantuavis. Both the synsacrum and ilium are extensively pneumatised. This extensive pneumatisation may be a plesiomorphic feature, but may also have had a weight-reduction function in a large flightless bird.     

Avian extinction at the end of the Cretaceous: Assessing the magnitude and subsequent explosive radiation

Debate on the magnitude of Cretaceous extinctions and timing of modern bird origins has sharply coalesced over the past two decades into contested models, gradualistic or explosive. Molecular clocks, bolstered by phylogenetic, biogeographic, and vicariance models, support an Early Cretaceous origin for birds and mammals over 100 million years ago. Yet, although numerous new Chinese fossils of archaic ornithurine birds have been discovered in the Jehol Biota of the Early Cretaceous of China, none shows close affinity to modern neornithines; it is not until the latest Cretaceous when some fossils show more advanced ornithurine morphology, and are possibly Neornithes. In contrast to mass survival scenarios, most paleontological evidence appears to support an explosive radiation following the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) mass extinction event, closely paralleling the geometry of mammal evolution. Gradualistic models ignore recent evidence of cataclysmic worldwide events following the impact event. How could mass survival of the environmentally sensitive birds have occurred following cosmopolitan environmental destruction, when other terrestrial vertebrates, particularly ectotherms, suffered dramatic loss? Given the paucity and scrappy nature of avian fossils immediately prior to and after the K–Pg boundary, it is prudent to use mammalian and other biotic evolution in the Paleogene as a guidepost for avian evolution. Our continued inability to produce a veracious phylogeny of higher avian taxa is likely related to a Paleogene explosive burst or ‘big bang’ evolution of bird and mammal evolution, resulting in short ordinal internodes.     

Taphonomy and abundance of birds from the Lower Eocene Fur Formation of Denmark

The pattern, pace and extent of the evolutionary radiation of modern birds (Neornithes) by the end‐Cretaceous (65 Ma) has long been debated. Well‐dated, taphonomically understood and phylogenetically constrained fossil birds from both sides of the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary are required to quantify the shape of this radiation, but have largely been lacking. Here we report on a large collection of fossil birds from the Lower Eocene of Denmark (ca. 54 Ma) that includes three‐dimensionally preserved, articulated specimens from carbonate concretions as well as skeletal imprints and feathers. These birds are from a marine diatomite sequence (the Fur Formation), a low‐energy deep‐water preservational environment unique to the Cretaceous and Paleogene avian fossil record. We present taphonomic and palaeoecological information gleaned from these birds that in combination with phylogenetic data have implications for unravelling avian survivorship across the K–Pg boundary as well as for the pattern of the neornithine evolutionary radiation. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New Species of Enantiornithes (Aves: Ornithothoraces) from the Qiaotou Formation in Northern Hebei,China

<正>We report on a new species of enantiornithine bird from the Lower Cretaceous Qiaotou Formation of northern Hebei,China.The new taxon,Shenqiornis mengi gen.et sp.nov.,possesses several enantiornithine synapomorphies but is unique from other known species.The specimen has a well-preserved skull that reveals new information about enantiornithine cranial morphology.The new taxon possesses a large postorbital with a long tapering jugal process indicating that some enantiornithines may have had a fully diapsid skull,as in Confuciusornis.The tooth morphology of the specimen is unique and likely represents a previously unknown trophic specialization within Enantiornithes.