Pseudodontornis

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Pseudodontornis
Temporal range: Late
Ma
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Clade: incertae sedis
Order: †Odontopterygiformes
Family: †Pelagornithidae
Genus: †Pseudodontornis
Lambrecht, 1930
Species

P. longidentata

C.A.Walker
, 1976 (disputed)
P. longirostris (Spulski, 1910) (type species)
P. stirtoni Howard & Warter, 1969 (disputed)
P. tenuirostris Harrison, 1985 (disputed)
P. tshulensis[
Nesov, 1991)[verification needed
] (disputed)
and see text

Synonyms

Neodontornis

C.A.Walker
, 1976 (but see text)

Pseudodontornis is a rather disputed

waterfowl, and are here placed in the order Odontopterygiformes to account for this uncertainty. Up to five species are commonly recognized in this genus.[1]

But actually the genus Pseudodontornis is barely more than a

suborder Sulae (or superfamily Sulides in suborder Pelecanae) before it was recognized that they are actually pseudotooth birds. The presumed family "Pseudodontornithidae", deemed invalid nowadays, had been recognized as pseudotooth birds all along, as they were established based on skull fossils preserving parts of the "toothed" beak.[2]

One of the species typically placed here – though in fact one that is rather unlikely to actually belong in Pseudodontornis – is the only smallish pseudotooth bird species known with certainty from the Neogene as of 2009. However, the enigmatic Tympanonesiotes was of similar size and may also be of Neogene age.[3]

Type species and description

The

dredged up from near the source of the Stono River – was provisionally assigned to P. longirostris as it closely matches the holotype in size and appearance. At first the South Carolina fossil was believed to be from the Early Miocene Hawthorne Formation, but in fact no Hawthorne Formation sediments were known in the Charleston region when the fossil was found. Consequently, modern authors consider a Chattian (Late Oligocene) age more likely and suggest the fossil came from the Cooper or Chandler Bridge Formation. Some fossil remains from the Middle Miocene Bahía Inglesa Formation of Chile were prematurely affiliated with P. longirostris in error; they are, if anything, of Pelagornis.[5]

The

quadratojugal that was displaced dorsally. However its relationships may be, there can be no doubt that the mysterious skull was from one of the large pelagornithids, and the living bird must have had a wingspan of more than 5, quite possibly as much as 6 m (16–20 ft).[6]

Other species

It is not entirely resolved whether the other four Pseudodontornis are indeed valid and distinct

Macrodontopteryx oweni (or Odontopteryx oweni) or – more likely due to its size – Dasornis emuinus.[8]

"P." stirtoni is a supposed Neogene member of this lineage. It was described from a crushed skull and

monotypic genus Neodontornis has been generally rejected, given the fossils' distinctness from P. longirostris in age, features, occurrence and size, it may just as well be appropriate.[10]

Pseudotooth bird fossils from Early to Middle Miocene Astoria and perhaps also Nye Formations of Oregon have also been assigned to Pseudodontornis. This is due to a writer's error, however, and should be "pseudodontornids". These remains are probably referrable to Osteodontornis.[11]

See also

  • Manu (bird)

Footnotes

  1. ^ Olson (1985: pp.198–199), Bourdon (2005), Mlíkovský (2002: p.82), Mayr (2009: pp.56,59)
  2. ^ Lanham (1947), Brodkorb (1963: pp.262–263), Olson (1985: p.198), Mlíkovský (2002: p.81), Rincón R. & Stucchi (2003), paleocene-mammals.de (2008), Mayr (2009: pp.55–59)
  3. ^ Scarlett (1972), contra Mayr (2009: p.59); Hopson (1964), Bourdon (2005)
  4. ^ By the standards of pseudotooth birds at least, whose bones were notoriously thin-walled and fragile and whose fossils are typically crushed and broken: Olson (1985: pp.194–195).
  5. ^ Hopson (1964), Olson (1985: pp.196–198), Matsuoka et al. (1998), Mlíkovský (2002: p.82), Rincón R. & Stucchi (2003), paleocene-mammals.de (2008)
  6. ^ Hopson (1964), Olson (1985: p.198), Ono (1989), Matsuoka et al. (1998), Mayr (2008)
  7. MP8-9" (Ypresian
    ), Mayr (2009: p.56): "late Paleocene"
  8. ^ Mlíkovský (1996, 2002: pp.81–82), paleocene-mammals.de (2008), Mayr (2009: p.56)
  9. ^ Formerly Middle Pliocene: Walker & Geissman (2009)
  10. ^ Scarlett (1972), Olson (1985: pp.198–200), Goedert (1989), Matsuoka et al. (1998), González-Barba et al. (2002), Rincón R. & Stucchi (2003), Mayr (2008, 2009: p.59)
  11. ^ Olson (1985: p.198), Becker (1987), Goedert (1989)

References

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