Yungavolucris

taxobox
name="Yungavolucris"
status = fossil
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
subclassis = Enantiornithes
superordo = Euenantiornithes
ordo = Enantiornithiformes?
familia =
genus = "Yungavolucris"
genus_authority = Chiappe, 1993
species = "Y. brevipedalis"
binomial = "Yungavolucris brevipedalis"
binomial_authority = Chiappe, 1993

"Yungavolucris" is a monotypic genus of enantiornithine bird. It contains the single species "Yungavolucris brevipedalis" [
Etymology: "Short-footed Yunga bird". "Yungavolucris", after the Yunga region + Latin "volucris", "bird" (literally "flyer"). "brevipedalis", from Latin "brevis", "short" + "pedalis", from Latin "pes", "foot".] which lived in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian, c.70.6-65.5 mya). The fossil bones were found in the Lecho Formation at "estancia" El Brete, Argentina.

Little is known about it because the only remains discovered so far are 6 tarsometatarsi, only one of which is nearly complete. This single foot bone, however, differs from all other birds in being very flat, and also very wide at the lower end. The specimens are small, just over 4 cm long, and if its legs and feet were not excessively shortened in relation to the body, the bird was about the size of a large blackbird in life.

"Y. brevipedalis" had short, wide, and dorsoplantarly flattened "legs" (actually ankles) with disproportionally broad and splayed "feet" (actually the front part of the feet only) which seem to have pointed markedly outwards (Chiappe 1993). This must have resulted in a somewhat Charlie Chaplin-like waddle if the bird walked on the ground. It was thus probably better adapted to swimming or even perching in trees than for running around in its richly vegetated shoreline habitat that was dotted by - possibly brackish - lakes and/or small rivers (Chiappe 1993).

"Y. brevipedalis" was an advanced enantiornithine and is sometimesFact|date=February 2007 considered to be closely related to "Avisaurus". This is quite unlikely however; it certainly lacks the backwards-projecting growth of the trochlea where the middle toe attaches that is typical for Avisauridae. Moreover, as opposed to the undisputed avisaurids which apparently all were fairly large carnivores, it was a much smaller animal and almost certainly did not hunt vertebrates.

Due to the peculiar autapomorphies of the present species' remains, the question of its affinities is hard to decide however. It seems somewhat closer to the avisaurids than "Lectavis bretincola", another enantiornithine discovered in the same deposit (Chiappe 1993). On the other hand given that the Spanish Early Cretaceous (Barremian, 130-125 mya) enantiornithine "Concornis lacustris" appears closer to the avisaurids than either "Yungavolucris" or "Lectavis" (Sanz "et al." 1995), a close relationship between the two El Brete taxa and "Avisaurus" seems highly unlikely.

References

* Chiappe, Luis M. (1993): Enantiornithine (Aves) Tarsometatarsi from the Cretaceous Lecho Formation of Northwestern Argentina. "American Museum Novitates" 3083: 1-27. [English with Spanish abstract] [http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/4981/1/N3083.pdf PDF fulltext]

* Sanz, José L., Chiappe, Luis M. & Buscalioni, Angela D. (1995): The Osteology of "Concornis lacustris" (Aves: Enantiornithes) from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain and a Reexamination of its Phylogenetic Relationships. "American Museum Novitates" 3133: 1-23. [English with Spanish abstract] [http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/2246/3667/1/N3133.pdf PDF fulltext]

Footnotes