| Apatornis Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 83.5 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Family: | †Apatornithidae Fürbringer, 1888 |
| Genus: | †Apatornis Marsh, 1873b |
| Species: | †A. celer (Marsh, 1873a) [originally Ichthyornis] |
| Synonyms | |
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Apatornis is a prehistoric terrestrial bird genus endemic to North America during the Late Cretaceous living about 83.5 mya.[1] It is known from a single fossil specimen: a synsacrum, the fused series of vertebrae over the hips.
Apatornis was named by Marsh (1873). Its type is Ichthyornis celer. It was assigned to Ichthyornidae by Marsh (1873); to Odontotormae by Marsh (1880); to Ichthyornithiformes by Sepkoski (2002); to Neornithes by Hope (2002); and to Ornithurae by Padian (2004).
It lived around the Santonian-Campanian boundary. Its remains were found in the Smoky Hill Chalk at Twin Butte Creek, USA. It was long allied with Ichthyornis in error. A single species is known, Apatornis celer. The supposed "A." retusus is now in Palintropus, and "A". marshi is now in Iaceornis.
Its relationships are unresolved, mainly due to the paucity of material. While it is sometimes considered a neornithine and specifically to belong to the waterfowl (Anseriformes), this is far from certain. Though waterfowl must have been around by the time it lived, a phylogenetic analysis could not find any particularly close relationship with the ancestors of modern birds, and thus A. celer cannot be classified at present with more certainty than placing it in the Carinatae incertae sedis[2].