Limenavis

Taxobox
name = "Limenavis"
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous (Campanian/Maastrichtian)
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
subclassis = Ornithurae
unranked_ordo = Carinatae
unranked_familia = Neornithes?
genus = "Limenavis"
genus_authority = Clarke & Chiappe, 2001
species = "L. patagonica"
binomial = "Limenavis patagonica"
binomial_authority = Clarke & Chiappe, 2001

"Limenavis" is a prehistoric bird genus from the Late Cretaceous. It lived about 70 million years ago, around the Campanian-Maastrichtian boundaryVerify source|date=November 2007 . Known from several broken bones, the remains of the only known species "Limenavis patagonica" were found in rocks of the Allen Formation at Salitral Moreno, 20 km south of General Roca, Río Negro (Argentina).

It is quite certainly a carinate, a member of the clade containing living birds and a few very closely related extinct Mesozoic taxa such as "Ichthyornis". It was even proposed to have been a paleognath, perhaps related to the ancestors of tinamous or rheas. Though such birds must have existed by that time already, and most likely at least tinamou ancestors (basal Tinamiformes) did live in South America by the Late Cretaceous [Tinamous proper (Tinamidae) are only known with certainty since the Miocene] , it is not too likely that "L. patagonica" is indeed a member of the Neornithes. [Mortimer (2004)]

However, of all the prehistoric birds known to date, this species is certainly among those closest to the common ancestor of all living birds. Its generic name pays tribute to this fact: "Limenavis", meaning "bird of the threshold" or "limit-bird", is derived from Latin "limen" ("threshold") + "avis" ("bird"). The specific name "patagonica" refers to the specimen's Patagonian provenance.

Footnotes

References

* (2004): The Theropod Database: [http://home.comcast.net/~eoraptor/Phylogeny%20of%20Taxa.html Phylogeny of taxa] . Retrieved 2008-AUG-14.

External links

* Dinosauricon: [http://dino.lm.com/images/display.php?id=1155 Specimen drawing] by Michael Mortimer. Retrieved 2007-NOV-02.