Information about Hesperornis

Hesperornis Fossil range: Late Cretaceous (Coniacian -? Maastrichtian)
Hesperornis regalis
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Subclass: Hesperornithes Order: Hesperornithiformes Family: Hesperornithidae Genus: Hesperornis Marsh, 1872
Species
H. bairdi H. chowi H. crassipes H. gracilis H. macdonaldi H. mengeli H. regalis H. rossicus (formerly rossica)

Hesperornis is an extinct genus of flightless aquatic birds that lived during the Coniacian to Maastrichtian sub-epochs of the Late Cretaceous (89-65 mya). One of the lesser known discoveries of Marsh in the late 19th century Bone Wars, it was an important early find in the history of avian paleontology. Famous locations for Hesperornis are the Late Cretaceous marine limestones from Kansas and the marine shales from Canada, but the genus had probably a Holarctic distribution.

Description

Hesperornis were very large birds, reaching up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) in length. They had virtually no wings, swimming with powerful hind legs. Their toes were probably lobed rather than being webbed, as in today's grebes; like in these, the toes could rotate well, which is necessary to decrease drag in lobed feet but not in webbed ones such as in loons, where the toes are simply folded together.

Like many other Mesozoic birds such as Ichthyornis, Hesperornis had teeth in its beak which were used to hold prey (most likely fish). In the hesperornithiform lineage they were of a different arrangement than in any other known bird (or in non-avian theropod dinosaurs), with the teeth sitting in a longitudinal groove rather than in individual sockets^[1].

Of the many species traditionally placed in this genus - such as the famous H. regalis, the small H. gracilis or the huge H. rossicus -, not all may be valid. Some, such as H. macdonaldi, are known from very few or even a single bone and cannot be properly compared against the more plentiful (but also incomplete) remains of other similar-sized and contemporary taxa. Coniornis altus (which includes H. montana) may also belong into this genus. In addition, there are some unassigned remains, such as SGU 3442 Ve02 and LO 9067t and bones of an undetermined species from Tzimlyanskoe Reservoir near Rostov^[2].

Paleobiology

Hesperornis hunted in the waters of such contemporary shelf seas as the North American Inland Sea, the Turgai Strait and the prehistoric North Sea^[3], which then were subtropical to tropical waters, much warmer than today. They probably fed mainly on fish, maybe also crustaceans, cephalopods and mollusks as do the diving seabirds of today. Their teeth were helpful in dealing with slippery or hard-shelled prey.

On land, Hesperornis may or may not have been able to walk. They certainly were not able to stand upright as in the early reconstructions as the legs attached far at the back and sideways, with even the lower leg being tightly attached to the body (see photo of skeleton). Thus, they were limited to a clumsy hobble at best on land and would indeed have been more nimble if they moved by sliding on their belly or galumphing. Indeed, the leg skeleton of the hesperornithids was so much adapted to diving that their mode of locomotion while ashore, as well as where it laid its eggs and how it cared for its young is a matter of much speculation.

Some have even pointed out that it cannot be completely ruled out that these birds were ovoviviparous instead of incubating their eggs. In any case, young Hesperornis grew fairly quickly and continuously to adulthood, as is the case in modern birds, but not Enantiornithes^[4]. More young birds are known from the fossil record of the more northernly sites than from locations further south. This suggests that at least some species were migratory like today's penguins which swim polewards in the summer.

Hesperornis were preyed upon by large marine carnivores. Tylosaurus proriger specimen SDSMT 10439 contains the bones of a Hesperornis in its gut, for example.

In popular culture

Hesperornis appeared in the third episode of the Science Fiction show Primeval. In Episode three, a housewife in west London finds, water spreading through the basement. She then calls a plumber. When he comes, the plumber is then killed by a frightened Hesperornis. Later a flock of Hesperornis where shown swimming around in a tropical sea and a Hesperornis rookery was shown amongst the rocky shoreline. Here Hesperornis was deplicted as having scales when in real life, Hesperornis was likely covered in feathers.

Hesperornis was also shown in the last episode of the Walking with... series spin-off Sea Monsters, being frequently attacked and devoured by larger predators such as Xiphactinus and Halisaurus

Footnotes

References

• Chinsamy A, Martin, Larry D. & Dobson, P. (1998): Bone microstructure of the diving Hesperornis and the volant Ichthyornis from the Niobrara Chalk of western Kansas. Cretaceous Research 19(2): 225-235. doi:10.1006/cres.1997.0102 (HTML abstract)
• Everhart, Mike (2007): Oceans of Kansas: Hesperornis regalis Marsh 1872 - Toothed marine birds of the Late Cretaceous seas. Version of 2006-DEC-12. Retrieved 2007-AUG-23.
• Gregory, Joseph T. (1952): The Jaws of the Cretaceous Toothed Birds, Ichthyornis and Hesperornis. Condor 54(2): 73-88. PDF fulltext
• Hills, L. V.; Nicholls, E. L.; Núñez-Betelu, L. "Koldo" M. & McIntyre, D. J. (1999): Hesperornis (Aves) from Ellesmere Island and palynological correlation of known Canadian localities. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 36(9): 1583-1588. HTML abstract
• Marsh, Othniel Charles (1880): Odontornithes, a Monograph on the Extinct Toothed Birds of North America. Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
• Rees, Jan & Lindgren, Johan (2005): Aquatic birds from the Upper Cretaceous (Lower Campanian) of Sweden and the biology and distribution of hesperornithiforms. Palaeontology 48(6): 1321–1329. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2005.00507.x (HTML abstract)