''Falcatakely forsterae'' (meaning "small scythe" from the Latin ''falcatus'' and Malagasy ''kely'', in reference to the shape of the beak) is an extinct genus of

enantiornithean The Enantiornithes, also known as enantiornithines or enantiornitheans in literature, are a group of extinct avialans ("birds" in the broad sense), the most abundant and diverse group known from the Mesozoic era. Almost all retained teeth and cl ...

lived during the period

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cret ...

approximately 68 to 70 million years, in what is now

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and its fossil remains date back the

Maevarano Formation The Maevarano Formation is a Late Cretaceous sedimentary formation (geology), rock formation found in the Mahajanga Province of northwestern Madagascar. It is most likely Maastrichtian in age, and records a seasonal, semiarid environment with rive ...

bird known from partial fossils from northern

. The genus contains a single species, ''Falcatakely forsterae''.O'Connor, P. M.; Turner, A. H.; Groenke, J. R.; et al. (2020). "Late Cretaceous bird from Madagascar reveals unique development of beaks". ''Nature''.

Description

''Falcatakely'' was a crow-sized stem-bird that can be distinguished from all other enantiornitheans by its deep, long

rostrum Rostrum may refer to: * Any kind of a platform for a speaker: **dais **pulpit ** podium * Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects * Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ...

approx. 9 centimetres (3.5 inch) in length, which is slightly reminiscent of that of a

toucan Toucans (, ) are Neotropical birds in the family Ramphastidae. They are most closely related to the Semnornis, Toucan barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful Beak, bills. The family includes five genus, genera and over ...

. Despite this resemblance, the upper jaw had more in common with that of the non-avian

theropoda Theropoda (; from ancient Greek iktionary:θηρίον, , (''therion'') "wild beast"; wiktionary:πούς, , wiktionary:ποδός, (''pous, podos'') "foot" is one of the three major groups (Clade, clades) of Dinosaur, dinosaurs, alon ...

in being dominated by a large

maxilla In vertebrates, the maxilla (: maxillae ) is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The two maxil ...

, while the smaller

premaxilla The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth. In humans, they are fused with the maxilla. The "premaxilla" of therian mammals h ...

made up the tip of the rostrum. This is the opposite arrangement of what we see in modern birds, where the upper beak is dominated by the premaxilla, which in ''Falcatakely'' still had teeth.Cretaceous-Period Bird from Madagascar Had Sickle-Shaped Beak
/ref>

Classification

The describers' phylogenetic analyses all place ''Falcatakely'' in the

Enantiornithes The Enantiornithes, also known as enantiornithines or enantiornitheans in literature, are a group of extinct Avialae, avialans ("birds" in the broad sense), the most abundant and diverse group known from the Mesozoic era. Almost all retained teet ...

, though its precise position is unclear. It has been recovered as a basal enantiornithean, the sister taxon of ''

Pengornis ''Pengornis'' is the largest known enantiornithean bird from the Early Cretaceous of northeast China. The name derives from "Peng", which refers to a mythological bird from Chinese folklore, and "-ornis", which means bird in Greek. ''Pengorni ...

'', and in a polytomy with many other enantiornitheans.

Paleoenvironment

''Falcatakely'' is known from the

, then a swampy floodplain which seasonally alternated between being swampland in the wet season and dry semi-desert during the dry season; it was home to other unusual animals such as '' Simosuchus'', a herbivorous crocodylomorph, ''

Masiakasaurus ''Masiakasaurus'' is a genus of small predatory noasaurid theropod dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. In Malagasy, ''masiaka'' means "vicious"; thus, the genus name means "vicious lizard". The type species, ''Masiakasaurus knopf ...

'', a short-armed, buck-toothed theropod, and ''

Adalatherium ''Adalatherium'' ( ''Adàla'', 'crazy' in Malagasy and ''therium'', 'beast' in Greek) is an extinct gondwanatherian that lived in Madagascar during the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous. The discovery of the first nearly-complete skelet ...

'', a highly unusual mammal. These forms may have evolved due to Madagascar being an isolated island during the Cretaceous.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q102349764 Enantiornithes Fossil taxa described in 2020 Maevarano fauna