Dasornis

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with
Dasyornis
.
"Neptuniavis" redirects here. For N. minor, see Odontopteryx.

Dasornis
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Reconstructed skeleton
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: incertae sedis
Order: †Odontopterygiformes
Family: †Pelagornithidae
Genus: †Dasornis
Owen, 1870
Type species
†Dasornis emuinus
Bowerbank, 1854
Species

†D. emuinus (1854)
†D. toliapica (1873)
†D. abdoun (2010)

Synonyms

Numerous, see text

Dasornis is a

Odontopterygiformes to account for this uncertainty.[1]

Almost all known material of this bird is from some 50

MP11-13) of Etterbeek (Belgium) that are only tentatively included here, and some even more conjectural remains from outside Europe (see below).[2]

Description

Skeleton from below

Like those of its relatives, the thin-walled bones of Dasornis broke easily and thus very few

Pacific and in the Southern Hemisphere, where fossils of a similar size were found (see below).[3]

This genus belongs to the group of huge pseudotooth birds, with

plesiomorphic, they cannot be used to argue for a closer relationship between the two Paleogene genera than either had with Osteodontornis and/or Pelagornis.[4]

Systematics and taxonomy

Only a single

junior homonyms) and divided between at least four species – excluding spelling errors and invalid "corrections" – that were variously moved between these genera for almost 150 years:[5]

1854-1890: "Lithornis" emuinus, "Megalornis" of Seeley, Dasornis and Argillornis
The first fossil of D. emuinus, a piece of right

paleontologists to no little extent.[7]

1891-1985: spelling errors, "Neptuniavis" and "completely unrealistic"[8] taxonomy
Subsequent authors, noting that it was quite obviously not a

taxa in no uncertain terms.[9]

2008: just Dasornis emuinus after all
Almost 150 years after the description of "L." emuinus, at the start of the 21st century, a rather well-preserved skull (lacking the

sympatric pseudotooth bird Odontopteryx toliapica.[10]

"Dasornithidae"
The

phylogeny, the Dasornithidae never were widely accepted; they are generally considered a junior synonym of the Pelagornithidae instead. And this seems to be quite correct indeed – as noted above, Pelagornis, the type genus of the Pelagornithidae, probably belongs to the same pseudotooth bird lineage as Dasornis and may even be descended from it. Thus, even if several families were recognized in the Odontopterygiformes, Pelagornis and Dasornis would almost certainly remain in the Pelagornithidae.[11]

Synonyms

The

junior synonyms of the genus Dasornis are thus:[12]

The junior synonyms of the species D. emuinus are:[13]

  • Argillornis emuinus (Bowerbank, 1854)
  • Argillornis longipennis Owen, 1878
  • Argillornis longipes Lambrecht, 1933 (lapsus)
  • "Dasornis londinensis" Owen, 1869 (nomen nudum)
  • Dasornis londinensis Owen, 1870
  • Dasornis londiniensis Lydekker, 1891 (unjustified emendation)
  • Lithornis emuinus Bowerbank, 1854
  • Megalornis emuianus
    Seeley
    , 1866 (lapsus)
  • Megalornis emuinus Lambrecht, 1921 (lapsus)
  • Neptuniavis miranda
    C.A.Walker
    , 1977
  • Odontopteryx Owen, 1873

Other fossils perhaps belonging in Dasornis

Late Paleocene/Early Eocene of the Ouled Abdoun Basin (Morocco) which have been provisionally termed "Odontopteryx gigas"[16] may in fact be from a small or juvenile Dasornis. The same applies to M. oweni – nonwithstanding that it is sometimes placed in Odontopteryx – considering it was for long included in Argillornis.[17]

Also provisionally assigned to Argillornis were some pelagornithid wing bone remains, specimens

Late Eocene of the La Meseta Formation of Seymour Island near the Drake Passage, and a Middle Eocene piece of a humerus shaft from Mount Discovery on the continent's Pacific side. Separated from the North Atlantic by a wide distance and the equatorial currents, even in the case of the Seymour Island specimen it is doubtful whether they could be referred to Dasornis, because the fossils are simply too fragmentary.[18]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Bourdon (2005), Mayr (2009: p.59)
  2. ^ Brodkorb (1963: pp.248-249), Mlíkovský (2002: pp.78,82-83), Mayr (2009: p.56) – see "Systematics and taxonomy" for the misidentifications involved.
  3. ^ Mayr (2008), Clouter [2009ab]
  4. ^ Mayr (2008), contra Bourdon (2005).
  5. ^ Mayr (2008)
  6. ^ Owen (1878)
  7. ^ Woodward (1909): p.87), Brodkorb (1963: p.248-249, 1967: p.142-143), Mlíkovský (2002: pp.82-83), Mayr (2008, 2009: p.56)
  8. ^ Olson (1985: p.195)
  9. ^ Brodkorb (1963: pp.248-249, 1967: p.142), Olson (1985: pp.192-193,195), Mlíkovský (2002: pp.78,82-83), Mayr (2008, 2009: p.56)
  10. ^ Olson (1985: p.195), Mayr (2008). For a specimen photo, see Clouter [2009a].
  11. ^ Mlíkovský (2002: p.81), Mayr (2009: p.59)
  12. ^ Brodkorb (1963: p.248, 1967: p.142), Mlíkovský (2002: p.82), Mayr (2008)
  13. ^ Brodkorb (1963: p.248, 1967: p.143), Mlíkovský (2002: pp.82-83), Mayr (2008)
  14. BMNH A5 and BMNH A8 or the proximal left ulna
    piece BMNH A94: Goedert (1989)
  15. ^ Published in a thesis and hence a nomen nudum: ICZN (1999)
  16. ^ "Odontopteryx n. sp. 2" of Bourdon (2005); "O. gigas" was published in a thesis and hence is a nomen nudum: ICZN (1999)
  17. ^ Brodkorb (1963: pp.248-249), Olson (1985: p.196), Goedert (1989), Bourdon (2006), Mayr (2008, 2009: p.56), Mlíkovský (2009)
  18. ^ Olson (1985: pp.196,199), Tonni & Tambussi (1985), Goedert (1989), Stilwell et al. (1998), González-Barba et al. (2002), Mayr (2009: pp.57-58)

Bibliography

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