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Plotopterid
Plotopteridae is an extinct family of flightless seabirds with uncertain placement, generally considered as member of order Suliformes. They exhibited remarkable convergent evolution with the penguins, particularly with the now extinct giant penguins. That they lived in the North Pacific, the other side of the world from the penguins, has led to them being described at times as the Northern Hemisphere's penguins, though they were not closely related. More recent studies have shown, however, that the shoulder-girdle, forelimb and sternum of plotopterids differ significantly from those of penguins, so comparisons in terms of function may not be entirely accurate. Plotopterids are regarded as closely related to Anhingidae (darters) and Phalacrocoracidae (cormorants). On the other hand, there is a theory that this group may have a common ancestor with penguins due to the similarity of forelimb and brain morphology. However, the endocast morphology of stem group Sphenisciformes differs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Klallamornis
''Klallamornis'' is an extinct genus of Plotopteridae, a family of large, flightless birds related to modern cormorants, darters, gannets, and boobies. This genus included the largest North American plotopterids. Its remains can be found in Late Eocene to Late Oligocene rocks from the Makah Formation, the overlying Pysht Formation and the Lincoln Creek Formation of the State of Washington. During its existence, ''Klallamornis'' was the largest plotopterid on the North American continent. The first fossil remains attributed to the taxon were collected in 1983, although the genus was not described until 2016. ''Klallamornis'' was a large pelagic seabird. Despite being unable to fly, its wings were heavily built and muscular, a consequence of wing-propelled diving adaptations. It was superficially similar with modern penguins, despite being only distantly related to them. The genus has a complicated taxonomy; of the three species published, two of them, ''K. buchanani'' and ''K. aby ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tonsala
''Tonsala'' is an extinct genus of Plotopteridae, a family of flightless seabird similar in biology with penguins, but more closely related to modern cormorants. The genus is known from terrains dated from the Late Oligocene of the State of Washington and Japan. History and Etymology In 1979, Storrs L. Olson and Hasegawa Yoshikazu identified several fossilized specimens of Late Oligocene and Early Miocene birds found in the State of Washington and in Japan as members of the family Plotopteridae, but distinct enough from ''Plotopterum'' in their general anatomy to warrant their own genus. The Washington fossils, collected by Douglas Emlong in Late Oligocene terrains of the Pysht Formation, in the north of the Olympic Peninsula, were formally described the next year, 1980, by Olson himself, as the type of the new genus and species ''Tonsala hildegardae''. Olson ascribed to the genus the holotype USNM 256518, an incomplete specimen comprising a fragmentary humerus, fragments of a d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phocavis
''Phocavis'' is an extinct genus of flightless seabird, belonging to the family Plotopteridae, and distantly related with modern cormorants. Its fossils, found in the Keasey Formation in Oregon, are dated from the Late Eocene. History and Etymology The holotype of ''Phocavis'', LACM 123897, an isolated right tarsometatarsus, was collected in Late Eocene rocks belonging to the Keasey Formation, near Vernonia, Oregon, by James L. Goedert in 1979. The fossil was only described in 1988 as a new genus and species of Plotopteridae, ''Phocavis maritimus''. Due to the lack of existing material on the two described genera of North American plotopterids, ''Tonsala'' and '' Plotopterum'', the validity of the genus was only assumed due to the assumed size of the living bird, estimated to be intermediate between the two later genera, and its much older geological age. Comparison could however be made with the then undescribed remains of ''Copepteryx'' from Japan to verify the identity of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olympidytes
''Olympidytes'' is an extinct genus of Plotopteridae, a family of large, flightless marine bird superficially similar to modern penguins but more closely related to cormorants and gannets. It lived during the Late Eocene or the Early Oligocene, in what is today the State of Washington and Japan. History and etymology The first specimen attributed to ''Olympidites'', a partial postcranial skeleton, was collected in 2012 by Bruce Thiel in Late Eocene to Early Oligocene sediments from the Lincoln Creek Formation. Another specimen attributed to the genus was collected by James L. Goedert in 2012, from Late Eocene or Early Oligocene rocks from the Jansen Creek member of the Makah Formation, in the southwest of the State of Washington. In 2016, those remains were identified by Goedert and Gerald Mayr as belonging to a new genus and species of plotopterid, which they named ''Olympidytes thieli'', based on the holotype SMF Av 608, the fragmentary skeleton found by Thiel. In 2021, Mori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Copepteryx
''Copepteryx'' is an extinct genus of flightless bird, flightless bird of the family Plotopteridae, endemic to Japan during the Oligocene living from 28.4 to 23 Annum, mya, meaning it existed for approximately . History and Etymology Remains of large, flightless suliformes in Japan are known since the 1970s. In 1979, Storrs L. Olson and Hasegawa Yoshikazu identified them as those of plotopterids, but their abundance and diversity complicated their identification as distinct species. In 1996, the two first species endemic from Japan were described by Olson and Hasegawa. Both species were identified as belonging to the same genus, ''Copepterix''. The type species, ''C. hexeris'', was described after a partially articulated skeleton, KMNH VP 200,006, collected in 1977 by Hasegawa himself on Ainoshima (Kitakyushu), Ainoshima, in rocks dated from the Late Oligocene of the Ainoshima Formation. As paratypes were considered another associated skeleton from the Yamaga Formation, a fragmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stenornis
''Stenornis'' is an extinct genus of Plotopteridae, a family of large-sized, flightless seabirds native from the North Pacific during the Paleogene and the earliest Neogene. The remains of ''Stenornis'' have been found in Oligocene rocks of the Jinnobaru Formation on Hikoshima and the Ashiya Group on Ainoshima, Japan. History and Etymology The first remain associated with ''Stenornis'', an isolated left coracoid, was collected in 1976 by Ota Masamichi on the Japanese island of Hikoshima, and described in 1979 as an indeterminate new species of plotopterid by Ota and Hasegawa Yoshikazu. In 1986, while describing the new genus ''Copepteryx'', Hasegawa and Storrs L. Olson tentatively referred that coracoid to the North American genus ''Tonsala'', of which the coracoid was then badly known, based on similarities found in then undescribed Japanese plotopterids. In 2020, a new analysis of the coracoid (KMNH VP 200003) from Hikoshima by Ohashi Tomoyuki and Hasegawa Yoshikazu led ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Empeirodytes
''Empeirodytes'' is an extinct genus of Plotopteridae, a family of large flightless bird known from the Late Eocene to the Early Miocene of the West Coast of the United States, British Columbia and Japan. Remains associated with ''Empeirodytes'' have been found in Oligocene rocks of the Ashiya Group, on the islands of Ainoshima and Kaijima, near Kitakyushu, Japan. History and Etymology In 2020, Ohashi Tomoyuki and Hasegawa Yoshikazu first described the remains of ''Empeirodytes okazakii'', assigning as holotype KMNH VP 600011, a partial left coracoid found in Oligocene-aged rocks of the Ashiya Group on the island of Ainoshima, Japan. They referred as paratype a right coracoid from the same horizon, discovered on the nearby Kaijima. Etymology The genus name, ''Empeirodytes'', is formed from the Greek prefix "''Empeiros''", meaning "proficient", and the suffix "-''dytes''", meaning "diver", referencing the adaptation towards wing-propelled diving exhibited by plotopterids ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plotopterum
''Plotopterum'' is an extinct genus of flightless seabird of the family Plotopteridae, native to the North Pacific during the Late Oligocene and the Early Miocene. The only described species is ''Plotopterum joaquinensis''. History and Etymology The future holotype of ''Plotopterum'' was discovered in 1961 in the Pyramid Hill Sand member of the Jewett Sand Formation, in the San Joaquin Valley of California, by Dick Bishop and Ed Mitchell. The remains were presented by Bishop to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in 1964. In 1969, Hildegarde Howard, at the time retired from her work of chief curator of science at the museum, described the remains, LACM 8927, the upper end of a left coracoid, as a new genus and species, ''Plotopterum joaquinensis'', which she ascribed to a new, monotypic family, Plotopteridae, due to its unique characteristics and adaptations towards swimming. In 1977, Hasegawa, Okumura and Okazaki described an almost complete bird femur, collected ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stemec
''Stemec'' is an extinct genus of Plotopteridae, a family of flightless seabird similar in biology with penguins, but more closely related to modern cormorants. The genus is known from terrains dated from the Late Oligocene Sooke Formation of British Columbia History and etymology Although the fossil remains of large marine birds like the Pelagornithid '' Cyphornis'' are known from the Sooke Formation of the Oligocene of Vancouver Island since 1894, the first remains of plotopterids from the formation were only discovered in 2013 in the vicinity of Sooke by Leah and Graham Suntok. In 2015, those remains were described by Gary Kaiser, Junya Watanabe and Marji Johns as the new genus and species ''Stemec suntokum'', using as holotype the specimen RBCM.EH2014.032.0001.001, a nearly complete coracoid. Etymology The genus name, ''Stemec'', designate an indefinite long-necked black waterbird in the Coast Salish language native of the area in which the holotype was discovered. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hokkaidornis
''Hokkaidornis'' is an extinct genus of Sphenisciformes, penguin-like plotopterid from the Late Oligocene of Hokkaido, Japan. History and etymology The first ''Hokkaidornis'' remains were discovered in sediments dated from the Late Oligocene of the Tokoro Formation, near the city of Abashiri, in the Japanese island of Hokkaido, and had been identified as the remains of a yet-unidentified genus and species of plotopterid in 1998. In 2008, Kazuhiko Sakurai, Masaichi Kimura and Takayuki Katoh (palaeontologist), Takayuki Katoh described the new genus and species ''Hokkaidornis abashiriensis'', using as holotype the specimen AMP 44, a semi-complete skeleton lacking the skull. Etymology The genus name, ''Hokkaidornis'', is constructed from Hokkaido, the island in which the holotype was discovered, and the ancient Greek suffix ''-ornis'', meaning "bird". The species name, ''abashiriensis'', refers to the town of Abashiri, near which it was found; the city name itself meaning "to be dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a small portion of its population extending slightly north of the equator (within a quarter degree of latitude). Highly adapted for life in the ocean water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage and flippers for swimming. Most penguins feed on krill, fish, squid and other forms of sea life which they catch with their bills and swallow whole while swimming. A penguin has a spiny tongue and powerful jaws to grip slippery prey. They spend about half of their lives on land and the other half in the sea. The largest living species is the emperor penguin (''Aptenodytes forsteri''): on average, adults are about tall and weigh . The smallest penguin species is the little blue penguin (''Eudyptula minor''), also known as the fairy pen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
