A field guide to mesozoic birds and other winged dinosaurs

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Basal Euornitheans “True birds”, the euornitheans include all birds more closely related to those living today than to opposite birds. All known euornitheans had fan tails. In contrast to the long, narrow, separated display feathers of the ribbon-tailed birds, these had an array of vaned feathers attached to a true pygostyle that allowed the feathers to expand into an overlapping, aerodynamic fan that greatly improved maneuverability, allowing for precise landings and more intricately controlled flight. Also unlike enantiornitheans, all known euornitheans had beaks homologous with those of modern birds. However, most Mesozoic fantailed birds retained teeth in their jaws, with beaks restricted to the jaw tips (the opposite of the condition in enantiornitheans, many of which had teeth restricted to the tips of narrow snouts), and often, if not always, supported by a unique predentary bone in the lower jaw which was lost in modern birds. The beaks of most early euornitheans were compound, made up of several discrete plates of keratin rather than singular solid structures (this condition persists in some modern birds, e.g. albatross). Some euornitheans experimented evolutionarily with toothlessness in various forms, but only the modern birds lost teeth altogether in favor of large beaks and bills. A semi-aquatic lifestyle was probably primitive for this group, as evidenced by their toothed jaws with beaked tips, association with aquatic or shoreline environments, and evidence that many of them fed on fish or other aquatic animals. During the Mesozoic, forest and inland environments seem to have been dominated almost exclusively by enantiornitheans, while aquatic and shoreline environments were ruled by euornitheans. Fan-tailed birds seem to have made few inroads to inland ecosystems until the extinction of the enantiornitheans at the end of the Cretaceous period. However, their shoreline habitat led the euornitheans to evolve more highly developed shoulder girdles which allowed them to take off from a flat surface (Martin & al. 2012). Enantiornitheans likely needed to climb into branches or up tree trunks to become airborne, necessitating the retention of the wing claws in most species. Euornitheans, no longer reliant on climbing to achieve flight, reduced their wing claws to vestiges relatively early in their evolution. 144
Above: Relationships of euornitheans over time. Phylogeny approximated based on You & al. 2006 and O’Connor & Zhou 2012. 145
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A Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and
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To my wife Rashida, For always bugg
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Enantiornithiformes................
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Introduction
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up of remains from various reptiles
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enough information about their plum
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Bird Origins & Evolution
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fur-like filaments called pycnofibr
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This same group (Chuniaoae) is wher
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20
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erately long rachides with long bar
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istles, the opposite of filoplumes,
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ers are anchored to a single plough
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using their wings to passively exte
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modern downstroke where the arm mov
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While Mesozoic birds and other anci
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Feathers & Wings Feathers are class
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longest digit is called the major d
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which aids in aerial maneuverabilit
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Hesperornis, the premaxillary nail
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carnivorous. However, many deinonyc
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Feather Color Recent work by Jakob
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Above: Hypothetical restoration of
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48
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Guide to Mesozoic Birds
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like in life based on fossil and ot
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Above: Relationships of basal caena
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Above: Relationships of caenagnatho
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very unusual looking birds.” Even
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Above: Relationships of microraptor
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Above: Relationships of eudromaeosa
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juv. adult 89
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Page 93 and 94: Above: Relationships of unenlagiine
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Page 99 and 100: Above: Relationships of troodontids
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Page 109 and 110: Above: Relationships of avialans ov
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Page 115 and 116: adult male adult female imm. male f
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Page 119 and 120: For that reason only well-known spe
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Page 127 and 128: Above: Relationships of eoenantiorn
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Page 133 and 134: Above: Relationships of cathayornit
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Page 155 and 156: Above: Relationships of carinatans
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Page 161 and 162: million years in the Cenozoic. Not
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Page 165 and 166: Above: Relationships of hesperornit
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Page 171 and 172: • “Euronychodon” portucalensi
Page 173 and 174: • Palintropus retusus - a possibl
Page 175 and 176: Oviraptor ~ Caenagnathus Oviraptori
Page 177 and 178: Ornithothoraces Chiappe & Calvo 199
Page 179 and 180: Hesperornithidae Marsh 1872 [Clarke
Page 181 and 182: Subfamily Oviraptorinae Osborn 1924
Page 183 and 184: Glossary • Alula: Vaned, pennaceo
Page 185 and 186: References Benton, M.J. (2004). Ver
Page 187 and 188: nonychus antirrhopus (Saurischia, T
Page 189: Matthew P. Martyniuk is an illustra
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A field guide to mesozoic birds and other winged dinosaurs

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