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Gaviiformes
Gaviiformes () is an order of aquatic birds containing the loons or divers and their closest extinct relatives. Modern gaviiformes are found in many parts of North America and northern Eurasia (Europe, Asia and debatably Africa), though prehistoric species were more widespread. Classification and evolution There are five living species, and all are placed in the genus '' Gavia''. The loons were formerly often considered to be the most ancient of the northern hemisphere bird families; this idea grew basically out of the perceived similarity of shape and (probably) habits between loons and the entirely unrelated extinct Cretaceous order Hesperornithiformes. In particular '' Enaliornis'', which was apparently an ancestral and plesiomorphic member of that order, was sometimes used to support claims of Albian (Early Cretaceous) Gaviiformes. More recently, it has become clear that the Anseriformes (waterfowl) and the Galliformes are the most ancient groups of modern birds, and these ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colymboides
The genus ''Colymboides'' contains three species of early loon dating from the late Oligocene or early Miocene. They are considered to be the earliest known unambiguous gaviiform fossils. The genus is widely known from early Priabonian – about in the Late Eocene – to Early Miocene (late Burdigalian, less than ) limnic and marine rocks of western Eurasia north of the Alpide belt, between the Atlantic and the former Turgai Sea. It is usually placed in the Gaviidae already, but usually in a subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ... Colymboidinae, with the modern-type loons making up the Gaviinae. But the ''Colymboides'' material is generally quite distinct from modern loons, and may actually belong in a now-extinct family of primitive gaviiforms. The best stu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loon
Loons (North American English) or divers (British English, British / Irish English) are a group of aquatic birds found in much of North America and northern Eurasia. All living species of loons are members of the genus ''Gavia'', family (biology), family Gaviidae and order (biology), order Gaviiformes. Description Loons, which are the size of large ducks or small goose, geese, resemble these birds in shape when swimming. Like ducks and geese, but unlike coots (which are Rallidae) and grebes (Podicipedidae), the loon's toes are connected by Bird feet and legs#Webbing and lobation, webbing. The loons may be confused with the cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae), but can be distinguished from them by their distinct call. Cormorants are not-too-distant relatives of loons, and like them are heavy-set birds whose bellies, unlike those of ducks and geese, are submerged when swimming. Loons in flight resemble plump geese with seagulls' wings that are relatively small in proportion to their bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nasidytes
''Nasidytes'' is an extinct genus of loon (Gaviiformes) that lived during the early Eocene in what is now Great Britain. It contains a single species, ''N. ypresianus''. ''Nasidytes'' is the earliest unambiguously identified loon in the fossil record. Discovery and naming The holotype of ''Nasidytes ypresianus'', ''NMS.Z.2021.40.24'', was collected in 1992 by Michael Daniels, in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, UK. It is from the Walton Member of the London Clay Formation. The holotype is a partial skeleton including the mandible and most major wing, pectoral girdle, and leg bones. NMS.Z.2021.40.25, a left carpometacarpus collected in 1996 by Daniels, has also been referred to ''N. ypresianus''. In 2022, Gerald Mayr and Andrew C Kitchener described ''Nasidytes ypresianus''. The generic name is derived from the Latin ''nasus'' ("nose", in reference to the semantically related word "Naze" in the name of the type locality) and the Greek δύτες (''dytes''), meaning "diver". Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colymbiculus
''Colymbiculus'' is an extinct genus of loon that lived in Novopskov, Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ... in the Eocene. References Extinct birds of Europe Gaviiformes Eocene birds {{Gaviiformes-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaviella
''Gaviella'' is an alleged North American Paleogene gaviiform which the holotype (and only known specimen) consists of the proximal end of a left carpometacarpus from Wyoming, United States. However, Shufeldt mentioned the location and the age of the fossil was not recorded by J.B. Hatcher and his team who collected it. Shufeldt originally classified this taxon as a species of the living genus '' Gavia'' being half the size of the common loon (''Gavia immer'') due to some similarity of the carpometacarpus of the aforementioned extant species. In 1940 Wetmore argued the specimen is distinctive enough to, not only belong to its own genus which named ''Gaviella'', but also felt they belong to their own subfamily Gaviellinae. This lead him to believe the specimen originated from the White River Formation The White River Formation is a geologic formation of the Paleogene Period, in the northern Great Plains and central Rocky Mountains, within the United States. It has been fou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Petralca
''Petralca'' is an extinct genus of loon found in Oligocene and Miocene deposits of Austria. The type and only species, ''Petralca austriaca'', was described in 1987. It is the only member of the Petralcinae subfamily. Originally thought to be the oldest representative of auk in Europe, it was reinterpreted as a member of Gaviiformes by Göhlich & Mayr Mayr is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Andrea Mayr (born 1979), Austrian female long-distance runner * Ernst Mayr (1904–2005), German American evolutionary biologist * Franz Xaver Mayr (1875–1965), Austrian gastro ... (2018). References Gaviiformes Neogene birds of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1987 Fossils of Austria {{paleo-bird-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Loon
The common loon or great northern diver (''Gavia immer'') is a large member of the loon, or diver, family (biology), family of birds. Reproduction, Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish or blackish-grey upperparts, and pure white Anatomical terms of location, underparts except some black on the undertail coverts and vent. Non-breeding adults are brownish with a dark neck and head marked with dark grey-brown. Their upperparts are dark brownish-grey with an unclear pattern of squares on the shoulders, and the underparts, lower face, chin, and throat are whitish. The sexes look alike, though males are significantly heavier than females. During the breeding season, loons live on lakes and other waterways in Canada, the northern United States (including Alaska), and southern parts of Greenland and Iceland. Small numbers breed on Svalbard and sporadically elsewhere in Arctic Eurasia. Common loons wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aquatic Bird
A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabirds that inhabit marine environments. Some water birds (e.g. wading birds) are more terrestrial while others (e.g. waterfowls) are more aquatic, and their adaptations will vary depending on their environment. These adaptations include webbed feet, beaks, and legs adapted to feed in the water, and the ability to dive from the surface or the air to catch prey in water. The term ''aquatic bird'' is sometimes also used in this context. A related term that has a narrower meaning is waterfowl. Some piscivorous birds of prey, such as ospreys, sea eagles, fish eagles, fish owls, and fishing owls, hunt aquatic prey but do not stay in water for long and live predominantly over dry land, and are not considered water birds. The term waterb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colymbiformes
Colymbiformes is a disused scientific classification, order of birds that was once used to classify grebes and loons. Scientific study has revealed that these two types of waterbirds are not so closely related; they have been reclassified in the orders Podicipediformes and Gaviiformes, respectively. References "Colymbiformes" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. 2005. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. Bird orders Obsolete bird taxa {{bird-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enaliornis
''Enaliornis'' is a genus of hesperornithine which lived during the late Albian to the early Cenomanian, making them the oldest known hesperornithines. Fossils have been found near Cambridge, England. Due to its lack of certain hesperornithid apomorphies, they were much more "conventional" birds and were initially held to be Gaviiformes (loons/divers). Description Based on the remnants that have been studied, it has not been determined if these birds had teeth like the others from this order. However, they were believed to not have well-developed wings. Like other hesperornithines, they probably had lobed feet for swimming, rather than webbed feet.Lim, J. D., Zhou, Z., Martin, L. D., Baek, K. S., & Yang, S. Y. (2000). The oldest known tracks of web-footed birds from the Lower Cretaceous of South Korea. ''Naturwissenschaften'', 87(6), 256-259. Classification ''Enaliornis'' was originally named '' Pelagornis'' ("sea bird") by Seeley in 1866, but that name was preoccupied by a Mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
