Amitabha (bird)

Amitabha urbsinterdictensis is an ancient bird from the Middle Eocene (approximately 50 million years before the present) in North America. One specimen has been found to date. Bonnie Gulas-Wroblewski and Anton Wroblewski described and named it in 2002.[1]

Amitabha
Temporal range: Middle Eocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Genus: †Amitabha
Gulas-Wroblewski and Wroblewski, 2002
Species:
†A. urbsinterdictensis
Binomial name
†Amitabha urbsinterdictensis
Gulas-Wroblewski and Wroblewski, 2002

Specimens

The only known specimen of A. urbsinterdictensis is the type, AMNH 30331, which consists of a partial skeleton, including an incomplete humerus, scapula, sternum, and pelvis.[2] It is from the Bridger Formation of Wyoming, which is of Middle Eocene age.[1]

Relationships

In their 2002 paper, Gulas-Wroblewski and Wroblewski found A. urbsinterdictensis to be a crown-group galliform, and a member of the "phasianoids", the group that also includes such birds as peacocks, pheasants, and turkeys.[1] Gerald Mayr criticized this analysis.[2] A 2009 study by Daniel Ksepka found the species to belong neither to the crown nor the stem of the galliformes, but rather to have affinities to the rails.[3]

Name

Explaining their choice of name, Gulas-Wroblewski and Wroblewski wrote, "urbsinterdictensis refers to the "Forbidden City" locality of Wyoming. Amitabha is for Amitabha Buddha, the bodhisattva of enlightenment and compassion, who commonly adopts the form of a peacock when incarnated in the material world".[1]

gollark: How did you work that out? Spending unreasonable amounts of effort to put it into a computery program?
gollark: How do you know? It might go to enjarred brain conventions.
gollark: It would still maybe be killed. It's not not mean to kill someone just because they won't feel pain.
gollark: That would be mean.
gollark: 1000V would be much rounder.

References
  1. Gulas-Wroblewski & Wroblewski 2002
  2. Mayr 2009, p. 43
  3. Ksepka 2009

Literature cited
  • Gulas-Wroblewski, Bonnie E.; Wroblewski, Anton F.-J. (November 2003). "A crown-group galliform bird from the Middle Eocene Bridger Formation of Wyoming". Palaeontology. 46 (6): 1269–1280. doi:10.1046/j.0031-0239.2003.00340.x.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Mayr, G. (2009). Paleogene Fossil Birds. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 3-540-89627-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Ksepka, D. T. (2009). "Broken gears in the avian molecular clock: new phylogenetic analyses support stem galliform status for Gallinuloides wyomingensis and rallid affinities for Amitabha urbsinterdictensis". Cladistics. 25: 173. doi:10.1111/j.1096-0031.2009.00250.x.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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