Tingmiatornis
Tingmiatornis | |
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Photograph (left) and CT scans of the holotype humerus
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Clade: | Avialae |
Genus: | †Tingmiatornis Bono et al., 2016 |
Species: | †T. arctica
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Binomial name | |
†Tingmiatornis arctica Bono et al., 2016
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Tingmiatornis (meaning "bird that flies") is a genus of flighted and possibly diving ornithurine bird from the High Arctic of Canada. The genus contains a single species, T. arctica, described in 2016, which lived during the Turonian epoch of the Cretaceous.[1]
Description
Given the small number of bones that are referrable to Tingmiatornis, it is difficult to infer much about the animal. However, the thickness of the
Tingmiatornis also differs from
Discovery and naming
The remains of Tingmiatornis were found on Axel Heiberg Island in the High Arctic of Nunavut, Canada, in an as-of-yet unnamed 3 metres (9.8 ft)-thick layer of Turonian rock between the Kanguk Formation and the Strand Fiord Formation. Radiometric dating places the age of these rocks at 92 Mya.[2] The type specimen consists of a left humerus labelled with the specimen number NUFV 1960, kept in the Nunavut Fossil Vertebrate Collection of the Canadian Museum of Nature. Other specimens referred to Tingmiatornis consist of a partial humerus (UR 00.200, stored at the University of Rochester) and ulna (NUFV 1838).[1]
The genus name of Tingmiatornis incorporates the Inuktitut word "Tingmiat", which means "those that fly". The species name, arctica, refers to the specimens being discovered in the High Arctic.[1]
Paleoecology
A number of other vertebrates are known alongside Tingmiatornis from the locality on
This habitat, which had a mean temperature of approximately 14 °C,[6] would have been an ideal nesting ground for Tingmiatornis, although no eggs or nests have been found at the locality to date. The bowfins that swam in the surrounding water, which likely measured 30–60 centimetres (12–24 in) in length, may have competed with Tingmiatornis for smaller fish, if the latter was a diving bird. Tingmiatornis may also have fished at night, much like the modern Western grebe; at this latitude, it would have experienced approximately two months of continuous darkness per year.[1]
During the Late Cretaceous, high latitudes appeared to have been dominated by ornithurines as opposed to the more basal enantiornithines.[9][10] This may be due to ornithurines exploiting more aquatic niches[9] or having higher growth rates in highly seasonal climates;[11] the latter likely did not apply as strongly to Tingmiatornis due to the warm local climate.[1]
References
- ^ PMID 27991515.
- ^ PMID 9856943.
- .
- ^ .
- .
- ^ doi:10.1139/e05-074.
- JSTOR 40512770.
- PMID 12388778.
- ^ .
- ^ Tambussi, C.; Acosta Hospitaleche, C. (2007). "Antarctic birds (Neornithes) during the Cretaceous-Eocene times" (PDF). Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina. 62 (4): 604–617.
- .