''Cyphornis'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of the

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

pseudotooth bird The Pelagornithidae, commonly called pelagornithids, pseudodontorns, bony-toothed birds, false-toothed birds or pseudotooth birds, are a prehistoric family of large seabirds. Their fossil remains have been found all over the world in rocks dating ...

s. These were probably rather close relatives of either

pelican Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before ...

s and

stork Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons and ibise ...

s, or of

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...

, and are here placed in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Odontopterygiformes The Pelagornithidae, commonly called pelagornithids, pseudodontorns, bony-toothed birds, false-toothed birds or pseudotooth birds, are a prehistoric family of large seabirds. Their fossil remains have been found all over the world in rocks dating ...

to account for this uncertainty.

Description

Only a single

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

, ''Cyphornis magnus'', is known to date. It is only known with certainty from a single specimen, the rather abraded

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

part of a left

tarsometatarsus The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is only found in the lower leg of birds and some non-avian dinosaurs. It is formed from the fusion of several bird bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) a ...

which was found at Carmanah Point on

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...

(

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

), where the

Juan de Fuca Strait The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's main outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the ce ...

opens into the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

. The deposits from which it originated were initially dated to the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

; subsequent authors have usually assigned them to the

Early Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages: the Aquitanian age, Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 annum, Ma to ...

though certainly rocks from around the Eo-

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

boundary also occur in the region where it was found. At the time of its discovery, it "probably represent dthe largest known bird of flight." Even today it is one of the largest (though not heaviest) flying birds known. Some huge pseudotooth wing bone fossils have been found in

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. Specimen LACM 128462, a mostly complete

end of a left

ulna The ulna or ulnar bone (: ulnae or ulnas) is a long bone in the forearm stretching from the elbow to the wrist. It is on the same side of the forearm as the little finger, running parallel to the Radius (bone), radius, the forearm's other long ...

, originates from the

Keasey Formation The Keasey Formation is a geologic formation in northwestern Oregon. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million year ...

of Washington County. LACM 127875 are fragments of the proximal

humerus The humerus (; : humeri) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius (bone), radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extrem ...

ends, the proximal right ulna and the right radius of a single individual presumed to be of the same species; they were found in the

Pittsburg Bluff Formation The Pittsburg Bluff Formation is a geologic formation in Oregon. It preserves fossils dating back to the Paleogene period. See also * List of fossiliferous stratigraphic units in Oregon * Paleontology in Oregon image:Map of USA OR.svg, The ...

near

Mist Mist is a phenomenon caused by small droplets of water suspended in the cold air, usually by condensation. Physically, it is an example of a Dispersion (chemistry), dispersion. It is most commonly seen where water vapor in warm, moist air meets ...

. These remains all date from the Eo-Oligocene boundary, and considering their size they may well be of ''C. magnus'' if it is in fact that old, or of its ancestor or older relative.

Systematics

Due to its fragmentary nature – the bones of pseudotooth bords are very thin-walled and light and notoriously easily broken and crushed when

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

izing – it was often allied with the enigmatic ''

Cladornis ''Cladornis'' is an extinct genus of bird from the early Oligocene of Argentina. Known from a single partial tarsometatarsus, its taxonomic placement is uncertain. It has been variously described as some kind of terrestrial penguin Pengui ...

'', and though placed in the

Pelecaniformes The Pelecaniformes are an order of medium-sized and large waterbirds found worldwide. As traditionally (but erroneously) defined, they encompass all birds that have feet with all four toes webbed. Hence, they were formerly also known by such ...

(as pseudotooth birds often were) separated in a

suborder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

Cladornithes. But the slightly older (

Late Oligocene The Chattian is, in the geologic timescale The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the pro ...

) ''Cladornis'' from the

Argentinian Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

part of

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

is known from a

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

right tarsometatarsus only, and thus not directly comparable to ''Cyphornis''. The two genera were allied simply because of their size and because they both vaguely reminded of the tarsometatarsus of pelicans. Today however, ''Cladornis'' is more generally held to be a

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

bird rather than a

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

. Other authors had been more conservative all along, and considered ''Cyphornis'' quite close to

s, uniting these as a

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Pelecanides in suborder Pelecanae, or later on (after the endings of

taxonomic rank In biology, taxonomic rank (which some authors prefer to call nomenclatural rank because ranking is part of nomenclature rather than taxonomy proper, according to some definitions of these terms) is the relative or absolute level of a group of or ...

s were fixed to today's standard) Pelecanoidea in suborder Pelecani. To set it apart from its alleged relatives, ''Cyphornis'' was early on separated in a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Cyphornithidae together with ''

Palaeochenoides mioceanus ''Palaeochenoides'' is a genus of the prehistoric pseudotooth birds of somewhat doubtful validity. These were probably rather close relatives of either pelicans and storks, or of waterfowl, and are here placed in the order Odontopterygiformes to ...

'' and eventually also '' Tympanonesiotes wetmorei'' which are also little-known pseudotooth birds but inhabited the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

. But these are probably all closely related to the better-known ''

Pelagornis ''Pelagornis'' is an extinct genus of prehistoric pseudotooth birds, a group of extinct seabirds. Species span from the Oligocene to the Early Pleistocene. Members of ''Pelagornis'' represent among the largest pseudotooth birds, with one species ...

'',

type genus In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name. Zoological nomenclature According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearin ...

of the family Pelagornithidae. And even if ''Cyphornis'' is the

senior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of all the later-described genera (which is not very likely), according to the rules of

zoological nomenclature The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its formal author, t ...

the family name Pelagornithidae would not change. Thus Cyphornithidae would almost certainly be a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of Pelagornithidae even if the pseudotooth birds are (as some have proposed) divided into several families – rather than being all placed in the Pelagornithidae as is usual nowadays –, as ''Cyphornis'', ''Osteodontornis'', ''Palaeochenoides'', ''Pelagornis'' and perhaps the smaller ''Tympanoneisiotes'' appear to be very closely related and are probably all part of a

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

lineage of (usually) giant pseudotooth birds. Only if the

lineage is sufficiently distinct, the Cyphornithidae would remain valid, but in this case they would presumably not include the Atlantic forms.Stone (1928), Brodkorb (1963: pp. 264–265), Hopson (1964), Olson (1985: pp. 195–198), Mlíkovský (2002: p. 81), Mayr (2009: pp. 58–59)

Footnotes

References

Electronic supplement
* * * * * * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q5200258 Pelagornithidae Miocene birds Miocene birds of North America Fossil taxa described in 1894 Taxa named by Edward Drinker Cope