Enaliornis

Enaliornis is a genus of hesperornithine birds which lived in the early Late Cretaceous, making them the oldest known hesperornithines. Fossils have been found near Cambridge, England. Due to its lack of certain hesperornithid apomorphies, they were much more "conventional" birds and were initially held to be Gaviiformes (loons/divers).[2]

Enaliornis
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 100–93.5 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: †Hesperornithes
Genus: †Enaliornis
Seeley, 1876
Type species
†Enaliornis barretti
Seeley, 1876[1]
Species
  • †Enaliornis barretti Seeley, 1876
  • †Enaliornis sedgwicki Seeley, 1876
  • †Enaliornis seeleyi Galton & Martin, 2002

Description

Based on the remnants that have been studied, it has not been determined if these birds had teeth like the others from this order. However, they were believed to not have well-developed wings.[3] Like other hesperornithines, they probably had lobed feet for swimming, rather than webbed feet.[4]

Classification

Enaliornis was originally named Pelagornis ("sea bird") by Seeley in 1866, but that name was preoccupied by a Miocene bird related to the pelicans. Three species have been described: the small Enaliornis sedgwicki, the medium-sized Enaliornis seeleyi, and the large Enaliornis barretti.

The size of the largest of the three species was comparable to a large pigeon.[3] Together, they are the only birds currently assigned to the family Enaliornithidae. The presumed hesperornithine Potamornis from the Late Cretaceous Lance Formation of Buck Creek (United States) may also be related to this group.

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References
  1. Brands, S. (2012)
  2. Harrison & Walker (1973)
  3. Perrins, C. (1987)
  4. Lim, J. D., Zhou, Z., Martin, L. D., Baek, K. S., & Yang, S. Y. (2000). The oldest known tracks of web-footed birds from the Lower Cretaceous of South Korea. Naturwissenschaften, 87(6), 256-259.

Sources
  • Brands, Sheila (7 Apr 2012). "Taxon: Genus †Enaliornis". Project: The Taxonomicon. Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 12 Jun 2012.
  • Harrison, C.J.O.; Walker, C.A. (1973). "Wyleyia: a new bird humerus from the Lower Cretaceous of England" (PDF). Palaeontology. 16 (4): 721–728. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-06.
  • Perrins, Christopher (1987) [1979]. Harrison, C.J.O. (ed.). Birds: Their Lifes, Their Ways, Their World. Reader's Digest Association, Inc. p. 166. ISBN 0895770652.



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