Perplexicervix microcephalon
By José Carlos Cortés on @quetzalcuetzpalin
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Name: Perplexicervix microcephalon
Status: Extinct
First Described: 2010
Described By: Mayr
Classification: Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae
Perplexicervix is a relatively-recently described species of dinosaurs from the Messel Pit of Germany, living about 48 million years ago, in the Ypresian age of the Eocene of the Paleogene. A mysterious bird, it is known from a halfway decent skeleton, and yet it cannot really be assigned a family group further than Neognathae - the group that includes all birds that aren’t Palaeognaths. It could be any sort of bird from this group - ducks, chickens, turacos, hummingbirds, flamingos, parrots, you have it. Granted, it really doesn’t look like any of those, so it also could be a very unique member of the Neognathae group. This dinosaur is known from a whole skeleton on the slab, that has a small skull with a short triangular beak that is a little bit hooked on the end, poors in its head, long and slender wing bones, and long toe bones. These give it a lot of similar characteristics to chickens, screamers, and pigeons, but not entirely similar. It’s shoulders are also robust and rounded, which contrasts with its general long and slender appearance. It is about half the size of Idiornis, the stem-seriema, and is very different in proportion compared to Idiornis, with longer arm bones and shorter finger bones, and the shorter shoulder. It most greatly resembles, in the end, screamers and vultures, but identification beyond that is impossible without more knowledge of its bones. Its ecology may have been predatory, like Idiornis, or something else altogether, due to its different proportions and body type.
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Source:
Mayr, G. 2010. A New Avian Species with Tubercle-bearing Cervical Vertebrae from the Middle Eocene of Messel (Germany). Records of the Australian Museum 62: 21 - 28.