''Ceramornis'' is a prehistoric

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

from the Late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

. It lived shortly before the

Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction) was a sudden extinction event, mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million y ...

in the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interv ...

, some Longrich, N. (2009). "An ornithurine-dominated avifauna from the Belly River Group (Campanian, Upper Cretaceous) of Alberta, Canada." ''Cretaceous Research'', 30(1): 161-177. Its remains were found in the Lull 2 location, a

Lance Formation The Lance (Creek) Formation is a division of Late Cretaceous (dating to about 69 - 66 Ma) rocks in the western United States. Named after Lance Creek, Wyoming, the microvertebrate fossils and dinosaurs represent important components of the lat ...

site in

Niobrara County, Wyoming Niobrara County is a county in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 2,467, making it the least populous county in Wyoming. Its county seat is Lusk. Its eastern boundary abuts the west lines of the ...

(United States). A single

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

is known, ''Ceramornis major'', and even that only from a

proximal Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position ...

piece of

coracoid A coracoid (from Greek κόραξ, ''koraks'', raven) is a paired bone which is part of the shoulder assembly in all vertebrates except therian mammals (marsupials and placentals). In therian mammals (including humans), a coracoid process is pre ...

. This is specimen

UCMP The University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) is a paleontology museum located on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The museum is within the Valley Life Sciences Building (VLSB), designed by George W. Kelham and ...

V53957, which was collected by a

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Fran ...

team in 1958. Pterosauria journal

''Ceramornis'' has been placed in the

charadriiform Charadriiformes (, from ''Charadrius'', the type genus of family Charadriidae) is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. It includes about 390 species and has members in all parts of the world. Most charadriiform birds live near water an ...

family

Cimolopterygidae Cimolopterygidae is an extinct family of ornithurines known from the Late Cretaceous epoch. Remains attributed to cimolopterygids have been found in the Frenchman Formation of Saskatchewan, the Lance Formation of Wyoming, the Fox Hills Formation ...

, together with ''

Cimolopteryx ''Cimolopteryx'' (meaning "Cretaceous wing"Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2008) ''Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages'Winter 2010 Supplementary Information) is a prehistoric bird genus from the Late Cr ...

'' and ''

Lamarqueavis ''Lamarqueavis'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric birds from the Cimolopterygidae known from Late Cretaceous-aged rocks from Argentina, Canada, and the United States. The type species, ''L. australis'', was named in 2010 and is based on the hol ...

''. This placement was based on quantitative analysis of its

and comparison with other neornithine samples. However, there remains some uncertainty about the taxonomic position, as there is insufficient fossil material to be assessed by wide-scale

cladistic Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived ch ...

analysis.Mortimer (2004) It is not certain that this clade was already distinct by the Maastrichtian.

References

Fossil taxa described in 1963 Late Cretaceous birds of North America Prehistoric bird genera Prehistoric ornithurans {{paleo-bird-stub