Earliest fossils of giant-sized bony-toothed birds (Aves: Pelagornithidae) from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica
Abstract While pelagornithid or ‘bony-toothed’ bird fossils representing multiple species are known from Antarctica, a new dentary fragment of a pelagornithid bird from the middle Eocene Submeseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica represents a species with a body size on par with the largest k...
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crspringernat:10.1038/s41598-020-75248-6 2023-05-15T14:12:20+02:00 Earliest fossils of giant-sized bony-toothed birds (Aves: Pelagornithidae) from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica Kloess, Peter A. Poust, Ashley W. Stidham, Thomas A. National Natural Science Foundation of China 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75248-6 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75248-6.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75248-6 en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Scientific Reports volume 10, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 Multidisciplinary journal-article 2020 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75248-6 2022-01-04T12:30:16Z Abstract While pelagornithid or ‘bony-toothed’ bird fossils representing multiple species are known from Antarctica, a new dentary fragment of a pelagornithid bird from the middle Eocene Submeseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica represents a species with a body size on par with the largest known species in the clade. Measurements from the partial ‘toothed’ dentary point to a giant body size for the species, although the spacing among the pseudoteeth differs from that published for other pelagornithids. The discrepancy might suggest that previous techniques are not adequate for examination of incomplete material or that another factor such as phylogeny might impact size estimates and comparisons. Combined with a revised stratigraphic position in the early Eocene La Meseta Formation on Seymour Island for the largest pelagornithid tarsometatarsus known, these Antarctic fossils demonstrate the early evolution of giant body size in the clade (by ~ 50 Ma), and they likely represent not only the largest flying birds of the Eocene but also some of the largest volant birds that ever lived (with an estimated 5–6 m wingspan). Furthermore, the distribution of giant-sized pelagornithid fossils across more than 10 million years of Antarctic geological deposits points to a prolonged survival of giant-sized pelagornithids within the southern seas, and their success as a pelagic predatory component of marine and coastal ecosystems alongside early penguins. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Seymour Island Springer Nature (via Crossref) Antarctic Seymour ENVELOPE(-56.767,-56.767,-64.283,-64.283) Seymour Island ENVELOPE(-56.750,-56.750,-64.283,-64.283) Scientific Reports 10 1 |
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Open Polar |
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Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
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crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
Multidisciplinary |
spellingShingle |
Multidisciplinary Kloess, Peter A. Poust, Ashley W. Stidham, Thomas A. Earliest fossils of giant-sized bony-toothed birds (Aves: Pelagornithidae) from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica |
topic_facet |
Multidisciplinary |
description |
Abstract While pelagornithid or ‘bony-toothed’ bird fossils representing multiple species are known from Antarctica, a new dentary fragment of a pelagornithid bird from the middle Eocene Submeseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica represents a species with a body size on par with the largest known species in the clade. Measurements from the partial ‘toothed’ dentary point to a giant body size for the species, although the spacing among the pseudoteeth differs from that published for other pelagornithids. The discrepancy might suggest that previous techniques are not adequate for examination of incomplete material or that another factor such as phylogeny might impact size estimates and comparisons. Combined with a revised stratigraphic position in the early Eocene La Meseta Formation on Seymour Island for the largest pelagornithid tarsometatarsus known, these Antarctic fossils demonstrate the early evolution of giant body size in the clade (by ~ 50 Ma), and they likely represent not only the largest flying birds of the Eocene but also some of the largest volant birds that ever lived (with an estimated 5–6 m wingspan). Furthermore, the distribution of giant-sized pelagornithid fossils across more than 10 million years of Antarctic geological deposits points to a prolonged survival of giant-sized pelagornithids within the southern seas, and their success as a pelagic predatory component of marine and coastal ecosystems alongside early penguins. |
author2 |
National Natural Science Foundation of China |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kloess, Peter A. Poust, Ashley W. Stidham, Thomas A. |
author_facet |
Kloess, Peter A. Poust, Ashley W. Stidham, Thomas A. |
author_sort |
Kloess, Peter A. |
title |
Earliest fossils of giant-sized bony-toothed birds (Aves: Pelagornithidae) from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica |
title_short |
Earliest fossils of giant-sized bony-toothed birds (Aves: Pelagornithidae) from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica |
title_full |
Earliest fossils of giant-sized bony-toothed birds (Aves: Pelagornithidae) from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Earliest fossils of giant-sized bony-toothed birds (Aves: Pelagornithidae) from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Earliest fossils of giant-sized bony-toothed birds (Aves: Pelagornithidae) from the Eocene of Seymour Island, Antarctica |
title_sort |
earliest fossils of giant-sized bony-toothed birds (aves: pelagornithidae) from the eocene of seymour island, antarctica |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75248-6 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75248-6.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75248-6 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-56.767,-56.767,-64.283,-64.283) ENVELOPE(-56.750,-56.750,-64.283,-64.283) |
geographic |
Antarctic Seymour Seymour Island |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Seymour Seymour Island |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Seymour Island |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica Seymour Island |
op_source |
Scientific Reports volume 10, issue 1 ISSN 2045-2322 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75248-6 |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
10 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766284631637753856 |