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A roller-like bird (Coracii) from the Early Eocene of Denmark.

ABSTRACT: The fossil record of crown group birds (Neornithes) prior to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary is scarce and fragmentary. Early Cenozoic bird fossils are more abundant, but are typically disarticulated and/or flattened. Here we report the oldest roller (Coracii), Septencoracias morsensis gen. et sp. nov. (Primobucconidae), based on a new specimen from the Early Eocene (about 54 million years ago) Fur Formation of Denmark. The new fossil is a nearly complete, three-dimensionally preserved and articulated skeleton. It lies at the lower end of the size range for extant rollers. Salient diagnostic features of Septencoracias relative to other Coracii include the proportionally larger skull and the small, ovoid and dorsally positioned narial openings. Our discovery adds to the evidence that the Coracii had a widespread northern hemisphere distribution in the Eocene. Septencoracias is the oldest substantial record of the Picocoraciae and provides a reliable calibration point for molecular phylogenetic studies.

SUBMITTER: Bourdon E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5037458 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A roller-like bird (Coracii) from the Early Eocene of Denmark.

Bourdon Estelle E Kristoffersen Anette V AV Bonde Niels N

Scientific reports 20160927

The fossil record of crown group birds (Neornithes) prior to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary is scarce and fragmentary. Early Cenozoic bird fossils are more abundant, but are typically disarticulated and/or flattened. Here we report the oldest roller (Coracii), Septencoracias morsensis gen. et sp. nov. (Primobucconidae), based on a new specimen from the Early Eocene (about 54 million years ago) Fur Formation of Denmark. The new fossil is a nearly complete, three-dimensionally preserved and art ...[more]

PMID: 27670387

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Project description:The early Eocene greenhouse world was marked by multiple transient hyperthermal events. The most extreme was the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~56 Ma), linked to the extinction of the globally recognised deep-sea benthic foraminiferal Velasco fauna, which led to the development of early Eocene assemblages. This turnover has been studied at high resolution, but faunal development into the later early Eocene is poorly documented. There is no widely accepted early Eocene equivalent of the Late Cretaceous-Paleocene Velasco fauna, mainly due to the use of different taxonomic concepts. We compiled Ypresian benthic foraminiferal data from 17 middle bathyal-lower abyssal ocean drilling sites in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, in order to characterise early Eocene deep-sea faunas by comparing assemblages across space, paleodepth and time. Nuttallides truempyi, Oridorsalis umbonatus, Bulimina trinitatensis, the Bulimina simplex group, the Anomalinoides spissiformis group, pleurostomellids, uniserial lagenids, stilostomellids and lenticulinids were ubiquitous during the early Eocene (lower-middle Ypresian). Aragonia aragonensis, the Globocassidulina subglobosa group, the Cibicidoides eocaenus group and polymorphinids became ubiquitous during the middle Ypresian. The most abundant early Ypresian taxa were tolerant to stressed or disturbed environments, either by opportunistic behavior (Quadrimorphina profunda, Tappanina selmensis, Siphogenerinoides brevispinosa) and/or the ability to calcify in carbonate-corrosive waters (N. truempyi). Nuttallides truempyi, T. selmensis and other buliminids (Bolivinoides cf. decoratus group, Bulimina virginiana) were markedly abundant during the middle Ypresian. Contrary to the long-lived, highly diverse and equitable Velasco fauna, common and abundant taxa reflect highly perturbed assemblages through the earliest Ypresian, with lower diversity and equitability following the PETM extinction. In contrast, the middle Ypresian assemblages may indicate a recovering fauna, though to some extent persistently disturbed by the lower-amplitude Eocene hyperthermals (e.g., Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 and 3). We propose the name 'Walvis Ridge fauna' for future reference to these Ypresian deep-sea benthic foraminiferal assemblages.

Dataset Information

A roller-like bird (Coracii) from the Early Eocene of Denmark.

Publications

A roller-like bird (Coracii) from the Early Eocene of Denmark.

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