#plesiocathartes

[darknymfa-art]

Mayozoic day 18, Plesiocathartes insolitipes. I don't know anything about these guys, I could barely find any information, couldn't even find any paleoart (though I only did a fairly quick look-around). We Just Don't Know.

[otussketching]

Fossil Novembirb: Day 10 - Bayou in the Badlands

The modern landscape of the American west is but a far cry from its past. Early Eocene Green River formation preserves an incredible snapshot of time 50 million years ago. The locality of these fossils was once a huge lake system bordered by forests of sycamore and palmettos, and teeming with animals of all kinds, including birds, which were in the middle of an enormous radiation of forms.

Calciavis: A palaeognath which was a member of the lithornithids. Like them, it fed on insects from the forest floor and was a powerful flier. Some fossils preserve colour pigments of its feathers, suggesting this bird was a glossy black.

Limnofregata: The earliest known frigatebird that flew over the water just as its aeronaut descendants. Like modern frigates, it plucked prey from the water and the shorelines of the lake system.

Plesiocathartes: A bizarre bird that has had a complicated history. Now we know that it was an early relative of the cuckoo-roller from Madagascar and probably lived a similar lifestyle.

Celericolius: An early member of the mousebird family that had long wings and even longer tail. It may have flown at high speed through the forests.

Foro: This american bird is in fact an early member of turacos, birds which are unique to Africa today. Like them, it mostly fed on soft fruit.

Prefica: A strange bird who'se closest living relative is the oilbird of South America, which is a nocturnal frugivore. It could be that this ancient relative lived in a similar way.

Nahmavis: An early member of the shorebird family known from a spectacular fossil that preserves feathers.

Gallinuloides: The earliest known true galliform, this small fowl was among the early ancestors of guans, quails, turkeys and grouse.

Presbyornis: A widespread wading waterfowl related to ducks and geese. Sometimes called the flamingo-duck, it used its flat bill to filter its food, and may have nested in colonies like flamingos.

[albertonykus]

After forests recovered from their devastation by the Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago, the few surviving dinosaurs quickly radiated into vacant arboreal niches. Among these new tree-dwelling birds, the most diverse were members of the clade Telluraves, a group that would give rise to hawks, owls, hornbills, kingfishers, woodpeckers, falcons, parrots, songbirds, and many more.

Here are a few 47-million-year-old telluravians whose fossils were found in the Messel Shale of Germany.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Plesiocathartes europaeus, P. geiselensis, P. kelleri, P. gaillardi, P. wyomingensis

By Jack Wood on @thewoodparable

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Name: Plesiocathartes europaeus, P. geiselensis, P. kelleri, P. gaillardi, P. wyomingensis

Status: Extinct

First Described: 1908

Described By: Gaillard

Classification: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Neoaves, Inopinaves, Telluraves, Afroaves, Coraciimorphae, Eucavitates, Leptosomatiformes

Plesiocathartes is an extinct type of bird that was originally thought to be a New World Vulture (hence the name, which includes cathartes), but then was actually found in later studies to be, possibly, related to the Cuckoo Roller - a bird that, much like the Hoatzin, is extremely unique, extremely rare, and phylogenetically mysterious. So, finding an extinct relative of the Cuckoo Roller is quite important to better understand where this particular rare dinosaur came from (the classification line above is based on recent DNA studies that are still somewhat controversial). It is known from the Quercy Fissure of France, the Geisel Valley of Germany, the Messel Pit of Germany, and the Green River Formation, and another species is known from the London Clay Formation as well, so while it is a primarily European sort of bird, it did spread to America as well. It lived from the Eocene to the Oligocene epochs of the Paleogene, from about 37 to 28 million years ago, in the Bartonian to Rupelian ages. So not only was it widespread, it was also long lived. Even back at that point, they looked extremely like the modern Cuckoo Roller, except for that its wishbone was smaller and more U-shaped, and it also had longer legs. Apart from that, it seems that the Cuckoo Rollers in general went extinct in the early Oligocene in the Northern Hemisphere. 

Sources: 

Mayr, G. 2009. Paleogene Fossil Birds. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. 

http://fossilworks.org/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=39650