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The evolution of falcons is rather poorly understood. Thanks to genetic evidence we know that they're closely related to seriemas, parrots, and passerines, but their fossil record is patchy and little is known about the early members of their lineage.

But a group knows as masillaraptorids are giving us a rare glimpse at what some early falconiforms were up to. Known from the Eocene of Europe, these long-legged predatory birds seem to have been caracara-like terrestrial hunters specializing in chasing down prey on foot – although their wings and tails indicate they were also still strong fliers.

Danielsraptor phorusrhacoides lived during the early Eocene, about 55 million years ago, in what is now eastern England. Although only known from partial remains, it was probably around 45-60cm long (~1'6"-2'), and it had a large hooked beak with a surprising amount of convergent similarity to those of the flightless South American terror birds.

Its mixture of falcon-like and seriema-like features may indicate that the common ancestor of both of these bird groups was a similar sort of leggy ground-hunting predator.

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#science illustration #paleontology #paleoart #palaeoblr #danielsraptor #masillaraptoridae #falconiformes #australaves #bird #dinosaur #art

ITS TIME

FOR

DINOSAUR MARCH MADNESS 2k23!!!!!!!!!!!!

Starting NEXT WEEK, we begin the ultimate competition:

DMM: RISING STARS

These are ALL dinosaurs that have been discovered in the past five years!!! New friends from old times!!! Including such new fan favorites as Bajadasaurus, Jakapil, Meraxes, and Anachronornis - and that's only four of them!

From the weird to the wonderful, these dinosaurs are here to indicate that just because they were found recently, doesn't mean that they aren't destined to become icons like the names we already know and love. Get ready to learn about some new paleontological excitement - and debate angrily over which ones are better ;)

Round One will go from March 1st through the 7th

Round Two will extend from March 8th through the 14th

Round Three will then go from the 15th to the 21st

Round Four from the 22nd to the 28th

And the FINAL FOUR SHOWDOWN (Ornithischian Vs Sauropodomorph vs Nonavian theropod vs Bird) will occur from March 29th through April 4th!

Thanks to the new tumblr poll feature, reconstructions and mini factfiles for each dinosaur will be on the post with the poll itself! No need to leave tumblr, no personal research, no google quizzes - just rapid learning and immediate voting!

Get ready to vote! Get ready to debate! Get ready... for DINOSAUR MARCH MADNESS!

Round One Matchups under the readmore :)

Fossil Novembirb: Day 8 - Raptors Are Back

Once the Cenozoic had begun, the only remaining dinosaurs were modern birds. That means raptors (or dromaeosaurs) would never again stalk the Earth, right? Wrong! Raptor dinosaurs get their name from modern raptors: eagles, hawks, owls and the like; and they are in fact some of the closest relatives of birds. So during the Paleogene period when predatory birds started to radiate, they weren't reinventing being a raptor. They continued being raptors.

Palaeoglaux: An early owl from Germany's Messel Lake, about 40 million years ago. Unlike modern owls, it had strange ribbon-like feathers on its body, likely used in display.

Horusornis: A strange relative of hawks and eagles that lived in France 35 million years ago. Like modern harrier-hawks, it had flexible feet to dig out prey from tree cavities.

Antarctoboenus: An early relative of falcons found from Antarctica, about 35 million years ago. It may have prowled near the edges of giant penguin colonies.

Danielsraptor: Another early falcon from the 50 million year old London Clay formation. It had a large jagged beak and long legs, which helped it catch prey on the ground.

Dynamopterus: A relative of Seriemas and terror birds from Messel lake, about 40 million years ago. It likely caught small vertebrates from the forest floor.

Paleopsilopterus: One of the earliest known terror birds, it lived in Brazil about 50 million years ago. It was already flightless and similar to later small terror birds.

Bathornis: A distant relative of terror birds that was remarkably successful. This flightless predator and its relatives lived in North America from the Late Eocene to the Oligocene.

Messelastur: A falcon-like bird of prey that was closely related to parrots and passerines instead of raptors. It lived in Messel Lake about 40 million years ago.

Masillaraptor: A tiny true falcon also known from Messel Lake. It had a relatively long beak from a falcon, and it may have fed mostly on large insects.

Tynskya: Another small raptor related to parrots and passerines, this falcon-like predator lived around 50 million years ago. Its remains have been found in North America and Europe.

#Fossil Novembirb #Novembirb #Dinovember #birblr #palaeoblr #Birds #Dinosaurs #Cenozoic Birds #Palaeoglaux #Horusornis #Antarctoboenus #Danielsraptor #Dynamopterus #Paleopsilopterus #Bathornis #Messelastur #Masillaraptor #Tynskya

FOSSIL NOVEMBIRB - DAY 8

Raptors! Danielsraptor is just a block

As always, you can get all these cute stuff in my redbubble

#Danielsraptor #fossil novembirb #novembirb #november promt list #birblr #paleoblr

Danielsraptor phorusrhacoides Mayr & Kitchener, 2022 (new genus and species)

(Skull of Danielsraptor phorusrhacoides [scale bar = 10 mm], from Mayr and Kitchener, 2022)

Meaning of name: Danielsraptor = [collector of the original fossil] Michael Daniels’s thief [in Latin]; phorusrhacoides = similar to phorusrhacids

Age: Eocene (Ypresian), 54.6‒55 million years ago

Where found: London Clay Formation, Essex, U.K.

How much is known: Partial skeleton of one individual including parts of the skull and limbs. A second partial skeleton including parts of the shoulder girdle and the end of the tail may also belong to this taxon.

Notes: Danielsraptor was a bird of prey, similar to but larger than Masillaraptor from the Eocene of Germany and the U.K. Masillaraptor had been previously suspected to have been closely related to modern falcons, but because previously described fossils of this genus were mostly preserved as flattened skeletons, their anatomical details were hard to discern. The three-dimensionally preserved material of Danielsraptor reveals several additional features that link these birds to falcons, including grooves along the biting surface of the upper beak (”tgr” in the figure above) and a projection in the back of the lower jaw (”prj” in the figure above). Danielsraptor and Masillaraptor were likely strong fliers and may have also been able to hunt on the ground, though their feet appear to have been less specialized for grasping prey than those of living falcons.

Interestingly, Danielsraptor also had a few traits in common with members of Cariamiformes (a group including the modern seriemas and the extinct phorusrhacids or terror birds), with its long, deep beak being especially similar to those of phorusrhacids. Genetic studies indicate that falcons and seriemas are fairly close relatives, so the distribution of features in Danielsraptor might indicate that a mixture of “falcon-like” and “seriema-like” characteristics was present in the last common ancestor of both groups.

Reference: Mayr, G. and A.C. Kitchener. 2022. New fossils from the London Clay show that the Eocene Masillaraptoridae are stem group representatives of falcons (Aves, Falconiformes). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/02724634.2021.2083515

#Palaeoblr #Birblr #Dinosaurs #Birds #Danielsraptor #Eocene #Europe #Telluraves #2022 #Extinct

Danielsraptor vs Heracles

Danielsraptor (left) or Heracles (right)?

Danielsraptor

Heracles

Voting ended onMar 9, 2023

Factfiles:

Danielsraptor phorusrhacoides

Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Michael Daniels’ Terror Thief Bird

Time: 55 million years ago (Ypresian stage of the Eocene epoch, Paleogene period)

Location: Walton Member, London Clay Formation, England

While the Eocene fossil records of Seriemas, Passerines, and Parrots are fairly well known, the last remaining group of Australavians - the Falcons - remains something of a mystery. Danielsraptor helps to put together this puzzle a little more. Along with Masillaraptor, these birds show an early radiation of falcon-relatives from the Eocene in which they tried out a more terrestrial lifestyle! Danielsraptor had long legs, allowing it to forage and hunt on the ground like modern caracaras. It had a very large pygostyle, giving it long tail feathers - and with strong wing bones, it was able to fly in addition to hunt on the ground. It had a beak very similar to living caracaras and the extinct Terror Birds, further corroborating the idea that it was a bird of prey (and also potentially indicating a more complex evolutionary story for the early-derived Australavians). Living in the London Clay, Danielsraptor would have been one of the top predators, easily hunting the small mammals as well as the birds it shared its environment with - aided by both its terrestrial stalking abilities as well as its flying capability. Living in the London Clay, it shared its environment with the early loon Nasidytes, early owls, trogons, paleognaths, tropicbirds, duck-screamers, other diurnal raptors, the pseudotoothed bird Dasornis, and many parrot-passerine relatives. Crocodilians, snakes, turtles, fish, sharks, and a handful of mammals (including a primate) also lived in this rich post-Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum environment.

Heracles inexpectatus

Artwork by @otussketching, written by @zygodactylus

Name Meaning: Unexpected Herculean Parrot

Time: 16 to 19 million years ago (Burdigalian stage of the Miocene epoch, Neogene period)

Location: St. Bathans Fauna, Bannockburn Formation, Aotearoa

Heracles was a truly alarmingly large parrot, related to modern day Kea, Kaka, and Kakapo, known from the fantastic avifauna of St Bathans. Standing more than two feet tall and weighing about fifteen pounds, this animal was much larger than any expected from the St Bathans fauna, which represented the initial colonization of Aotearoa (Zealandia) after it returned above sea level. Heracles is also the largest known species of parrot, ever. It was presumably flightless, though it is uncertain if it was nocturnal like its living relative the Kakapo. Its exact ecology is still uncertain, given the material known from Heracles is limited and its living relatives have very disparate ecologies, though it is possible it was omnivorous similar to the Kea and Kaka today. The St Bathans fauna lived in a freshwater lake system, in a subtropical emergent rainforest. Separated from land bridges, the fauna was dominated by birds, with early relatives of the Kiwi, New Zealand Wrens, Adzebills, and Wedge-Tailed eagles found in the fauna, as well as somewhat modern looking Moas. Smaller flamingos, large fruit pigeons, and a huge variety of geese and other waterfowl are known. In addition, frogs, tuataras, other lizards, crocodilians, turtles, and many different types of fish are known from this fascinating ecosystem.

DMM Round One Masterpost