Eurolimnornis

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Eurolimnornis
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Superorder: Neognathae?
Order: Eurolimnornithiformes
Bock & Buhler, 1996
Family: Eurolimnornithidae
Kessler & Jurcsák, 1986
Genus: Eurolimnornis
Kessler & Jurcsák, 1986
Species: E. corneti
Binomial name
Eurolimnornis corneti
Kessler & Jurcsák, 1986
Synonyms

Limnornis corneti
Kessler & Jurcsák, 1984

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).

[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. 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.