Eurolimnornis
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| Eurolimnornis Fossil range: Early Cretaceous |
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| Eurolimnornis corneti Kessler & Jurcsák, 1986 |
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Limnornis corneti |
Eurolimnornis is the name given to a monotypic genus of fossil bird from the Early Cretaceous. E. corneti probably was a primitive, but essentially modern bird and may indeed be an early neognathe ancestral to the grebes, although the alternative theories that it was a theropod or pterosaur (Benton et al., 1997) or a more primitive (ornithuromorph) bird cannot be completely refuted.
The holotype and only material known to date (MTCO-P 7896) is a distal fragment of the right humerus, which was at first ascribed to the same species as the specimen of Palaeocursornis corneti. Regarding the synonymy (or lack thereof) of this taxon, see Bock & Bühler (1996).
The remains were found in Berriasian (around 143 mya) deposits at Cornet near Oradea, Romania. Eurolimnornis occurred on what was then an archipelago of volcanic and coral islands towards the east of the Piemont-Liguria Ocean. Its habitat was hilly, karstic terrain with numerous freshwater and/or brackish rivers, lakes and swamps. As this archipelago lay around 35°N latitude in a warmer, wetter climate than exists today, it was roughly similar to today's Caribbean or Indonesia.(Benton et al., 1997)
[edit] References
- Benton, M. J.; Cook, E.; Grigorescu, D.; Popa, E. & Tallódi, E. (1997): Dinosaurs and other tetrapods in an Early Cretaceous bauxite-filled fissure, northwestern Romania. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 130: 275-292. doi:10.1016/S0031-0182(96)00151-4 PDF fulltext
- Bock, Walter J. & Bühler, Paul (1996): Nomenclature of Cretaceous birds from Romania. Cretaceous Research 17: 509–514. PDF fulltext
- Kessler, E. & Jurcsák, T. (1986): New contributions to the knowledge of the Lower Cretaceous bird remains from Cornet (Romania). Travaux du Musée d'Histoire Naturelle Grigore Antipa 28: 289–295.
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