Jul 1
A voidian Messelornis (comfortable with their sexuality being unknown) and an older rainbow bee-eater, about to snack on some rainbow bees!
seen from Chile
seen from Israel
seen from Spain
seen from Kazakhstan
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from Brazil
seen from Canada
seen from Brazil
seen from Serbia
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Jamaica
seen from Mexico
seen from Ukraine
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Colombia
seen from Netherlands
seen from Bahrain
seen from Israel
A voidian Messelornis (comfortable with their sexuality being unknown) and an older rainbow bee-eater, about to snack on some rainbow bees!
Junerassic day 29, Messelornis russelli. Wanted it to match with the demiboy bird I did a few days ago, but this one didn't have a crest so went with iridescent bits on the head and neck.
Day 180 of DDD! Messelornis russelli! A Gruiforme bird from Paleocene of France! While there are two more species within its genus, M. russelli is the most fragmentary of the three.
Fossil Novembirb: Day 11 - A New Dawn
Messel lake is a legendary fossil site from the middle Eocene of Germany, about 40 million years ago. It preserves incredible fossils and a great diversity of life thanks to the lake's dark, volcanic secrets. This was also famously the setting of the first episode of the paleodocumentary series Walking With Beasts. While the episode isn't particularly accurate and actually takes place at the later part of the Paleogene greenhouse, one thing is certain. There were a lot of birds here.
Hassiavis: An insectivorous bird related to nightjars and owlet-nightjars. The fossil of this bird is so well preserved that even the pattern of the bird's wing feathers is visible.
Paraprefica: An early relative of those peculiar South American birds, the potoos. In all likelyhood, this early potoo was just as weird as modern ones.
Scaniacypselus: One of the first true swifts, and was just as incredibly adapter for a life on the wing as modern swifts and tree-swifts.
Messelirrisor: A tiny insectivorous bird that was related to hoopoes.
Selmes: This small omnivorous bird was related to modern mousebirds. And like them, it could wwist all four of its toes forwards.
Eocoracias: A relative of rollers and the dollarbird that ate insects. The coloration of this bird is fully known thanks to excellent fossil preservation.
Masillastega: The earliest known gannet known from a complete skull. This booby dove under the surface to catch fish, though it likely didn't plunge down like modern boobies.
Rhynchaeites: A widespread wader known from multiple fossil sites in Europe. It closely resembles and may have been related to modern ibises.
Messelornis: A relative of modern rails and the obscure finfoots, this was a very successful bird, with fossils found from Europe and North America.
Juncitarsus: A long legged and spear beaked bird that resembles a crane, but is actually related to grebes and flamingoes. It used it's sharp beak to spear fish.
Paleotis: A relatively large and flightless relative of the modern ostriches, standing around a metre tall.
In the wake of 2021, added Yuanchuavis and modified Eoconfuciusornis for the paleocolor chart.
More detailed description
Updated my dinosaur paleocolor lineup with a few new entries from 2020: the lithornithid Calciavis (glossy black plumage) and the enantiornithean Protopteryx (black wingtips).
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The latest in dinosaur paleocolor! 2019 gave us the colors of Eocoracias, and Pellornis gets retroactively added after a previously unnamed specimen was assigned to it.
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2018 was a good year for the study of paleo-color, adding four species to the line-up of fossil dinosaurs with inferred coloration!