Laornithidae

Information about Laornithidae

Laornis
Fossil range: see text

fossil

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Subclass:	Neornithes
Infraclass:	Neognathae
Superorder:	Neoaves
Family:	Laornithidae Cracraft, 1973
Genus:	*Laornis* Marsh, 1870
Species:	*L. edvardsianus*

Binomial name

Laornis edvardsianus
Marsh, 1870

Synonyms

Laopteryx Kurochkin, 1995 (lapsus)

Laornis is a genus of a prehistoric neornithine birds, known only from a single tibiotarsus leg bone^[1] discovered in 1870, of the single species Laornis edvardsianus^[2]. 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.

References

Baird, Donald (1967): Age of fossil birds from the greensands of New Jersey. Auk 84(2): 260-262. 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. 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 49: 205-217.
Wetmore, Alexander (1930): The age of the supposed Cretaceous birds from New Jersey. Auk 47(2): 186-188. PDF fulltext

Footnotes

1. ^ YPM 820. See Cracraft, 1973:47, for photographs
2. ^ Etymology: Laornis, "stone bird" or "fossil bird", from Ancient Greek lao "stone" + ornis "bird". edvardsianus, dedicated to Alphonse Milne-Edwards

External links

Satellite image of the type locality from Google Maps
Topographic map of the type locality from TopoZone
Aerial image of the type locality from TerraServer-USA

Coordinates:

conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Chordata
Bateson, 1885

Typical Classes

See below

Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates.
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Aves
Linnaeus, 1758

Orders

About two dozen - see section below

Birds (class Aves) are bipedal, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrate animals.
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Neornithes
Gadow, 1893

Superorders

Paleognathae
Neognathae

Modern birds (subclass Neornithes) are the members of class Aves that have survived into recent times and have coexisted with humans.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1940s 1950s 1960s - 1970s - 1980s 1990s 2000s
1970 1971 1972 - 1973 - 1974 1975 1976

For the song by James Blunt, see .

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Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 - March 18, 1899) was one of the pre-eminent paleontologists of the 19th century, who discovered and named many fossils found in the American West.

Marsh was born in Lockport, New York.
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18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1840s 1850s 1860s - 1870s - 1880s 1890s 1900s
1867 1868 1869 - 1870 - 1871 1872 1873

:
Subjects: Archaeology - Architecture -
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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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In scientific nomenclature, synonyms are different scientific names used for a single taxon. Usage and terminology are different for zoology and botany.

Zoology

In zoological nomenclature, synonyms are different scientific names that pertain to the same taxon, for example
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s
1992 1993 1994 - 1995 - 1996 1997 1998

Year 1995 (MCMXCV
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The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia.

References

Proctor, Nobel S.

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species is one of the basic units of biological classification. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
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The Cretaceous Period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of the Jurassic Period (i.e. from 145.5 ± 4.0 million years ago (Ma)) to the beginning of the Paleocene epoch of the Tertiary Period (about 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma).
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The Paleocene, "early dawn of the recent", is a geologic epoch that lasted from 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma to 55.8 ± 0.2 Ma (million years ago). It is the first epoch of the Palaeogene Period in the modern Cenozoic era.
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mya or "m.y.a." is an abbreviation for million years ago. This abbreviation is commonly used as a unit of time to denote length of time before the present or "B.P." (before AD 1950). Specifically, one mya is equal to 10⁶ years ago.
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Marls are calcium carbonate or lime-rich muds or mudstones which contain variable amounts of clays and calcite or aragonite. The term is most often used to describe lacustrine (lake) sediments but may also be used for marine deposits.
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Pemberton, New Jersey

Seal
Motto:
Pemberton Township highlighted in Burlington County. Inset map: Burlington County highlighted in the State of New Jersey.
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Charadriiformes
Huxley, 1867

Families

Scolopacidae
Rostratulidae
Jacanidae
Thinocoridae
Pedionomidae
Laridae
Rhynchopidae
Sternidae
Alcidae
Stercorariidae
Glareolidae
Dromadidae
Turnicidae
Burhinidae
Chionididae
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Gruiformes
Bonaparte, 1854

Families

Some 5-10 living, see article text.

The diverse order Gruiformes contains a considerable number of living and extinct bird families with, on first sight, little in common. Gruiform means "crane-like.
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In phylogenetics, basal members of a group diverged earlier than a subgroup of others (or vice versa). It is often used in opposition to the word derived. The following are example usages of the term basal:....
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The Auk is a quarterly journal and the official publication of the American Ornithologists' Union, having been continuously published by that body since 1884. The journal contains articles relating scientific studies of the anatomy, behavior, and distribution of birds.
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The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh, the early paleontologist.
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Etymology is the study of the history of words - when they entered a language, from what source, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.

In languages with a long written history, etymology makes use of philology, the study of how words change from culture to
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Ancient Greek refers to the second stage in the history of the Greek language^[1] as it existed during the Archaic (9th–6th centuries BC) and Classical (5th–4th centuries BC) periods in Greece.
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Laornithidae

Information about Laornithidae

See also

References

Footnotes

External links

Zoology

See also

References