Laornis

__NOTOC__Taxobox
name = "Laornis"
status = fossil
fossil_range = "see text"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
subclassis = Neornithes
infraclassis = Neognathae
superordo = Neoaves
familia = Laornithidae
familia_authority = Cracraft, 1973
genus = "Laornis"
genus_authority = Marsh, 1870
species = " L. edvardsianus"
binomial = " Laornis edvardsianus"
binomial_authority = Marsh, 1870
synonyms ="Laopteryx" Taxobox_authority | author = Kurochkin | date = 1995 ("lapsus")

"Laornis" is a genus of a prehistoric neornithine birds, known only from a single tibiotarsus leg bone [
YPM 820. See Cracraft, 1973:47, for photographs] discovered in the late 1800s, of the single species "Laornis edvardsianus" [
Etymology: "Laornis", "stone bird" or "fossil bird", from Ancient Greek "lao" "stone" + "ornis" "bird". "edvardsianus", dedicated to Alphonse Milne-EdwardsVerify source|date=July 2007] .It was found in Late Cretaceous or Early Palaeocene (Wetmore, 1930; Baird, 1967) sediments of the Hornerstown Formation (c.66-63 mya) at the Birmingham Marl Pits, Pemberton Township, New Jersey, USA (39°59'N, 74°43'W).

The bone is not very diagnostic, but its general shape suggests that "Laornis" was a wading, semi-aquatic bird with longish legs and a body the size of a large goose; it stood probably around one meter (3-4 ft) tall in life depending on how long its legs and neck were exactly, which of course cannot be told from the one known bone.

It has variously been allied with the Charadriiformes and the Gruiformes, and is tentatively placed in a family of its own (Laornithidae) which most likely - but far from certainly - was some kind of basal gruiform, or more probably part of an ancestral lineage related to the common ancestor of gruiform, charadriiform, and/or other modern "wading" bird families.

ee also

* Graculavidae

References

* Baird, Donald (1967): Age of fossil birds from the greensands of New Jersey. "Auk" 84(2): 260-262. [http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v084n02/p0260-p0262.pdf PDF fulltext]

* Cracraft, Joel (1973): Systematics and evolution of the Gruiformes (class Aves). 3, Phylogeny of the suborder Grues. "Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History" 151: 1-127. [http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/597/1/B151a01.pdf PDF fulltext]

* Marsh, Othniel Charles (1870): Notice of some fossil birds from Cretaceous and Tertiary formations of the United States. "American Journal of Science, Series 2" 49Verify source|date=July 2007 : 205-217.

* Wetmore, Alexander (1930): The age of the supposed Cretaceous birds from New Jersey. "Auk" 47(2): 186-188. [http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v047n02/p0186-p0188.pdf PDF fulltext]

Footnotes

External links

* Satellite image of the type locality from [http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&om=1&z=17&ll=39.98322,-74.715528&spn=0.005459,0.009999&t=h Google Maps]
* Topographic map of the type locality from [http://www.topoquest.com/map.asp?lat=39.98287&lon=-74.71576&datum=nad83&u=4&layer=DRG&size=l&s=48 TopoQuest]
* Aerial image of the type locality from [http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=18&X=2621&Y=22129&W=3 TerraServer-USA]