New Mesozoic birds papers

["bh480@scn.org" <bh480@scn.org>]

From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org

In case these online advance publications have not been mentioned:

Cretaceous Research: advance online publication

Bird tracks from Liaoning Province, China: New insights 
into avian evolution during the Jurassic-Cretaceous 
transition 

Martin Lockley , Masaki Matsukawa, Hiroto Ohira, 
Jianjun Li, Joanna Wright, Diane White and Peiji Chen 

Available online 2 February 2006. 

Abstract 
Tracks of shorebird-like species from a small outcrop in the upper part of
the Tuchengzi Formation at Kangjiatun, in the Beipiao area, Liaoning
Province, may be the oldest 
bird tracks known from China. Formerly considered Late Jurassic in age, new
fission track dates give an age of 145.9 Ma for ash beds associated with
dinosaur track- 
bearing beds from the middle part of the Tuchengzi Formation outcrops at a
nearby locality. Thus, the age appears to be close to the
Jurassic-Cretaceous (Tithonian- 
Berriasian) boundary. The precise age of the bird track-bearing beds has
not been determined, but is unlikely to be younger than about 139 Ma, based
on dates for the upper 
part of the Tuchengzi Formation. Thus, the bird tracks, like the Tuchengzi
ichnofauna in general, predate the famous Yixian Formation, which has
produced a different 
avifauna. 

The most distinctive tracks are here named Pullornipes aureus ichnosp. nov.
and are tentatively assigned to the ichnofamily Koreanornipodidae. Other
tracks from the same 
site appear to represent different ichnotaxa and therefore indicate the
potential to find diverse avian ichnofaunas at this time. This record
supports the evidence that East 
Asian avian ichnofaunas are the most diverse known during the Early
Cretaceous. 

Keywords: Bird tracks; Tuchengzi Formation; Liaoning 
Province; Early Cretaceous; Fission track dates 
For eight years, Newport and Marie Coppola 

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 
Dec. 2006 (advance publication)
Cretaceous fossil birds from Hornby Island (British Columbia)

Kurt Morrison, Gareth J. Dyke, and Luis M. Chiappe 
Can. J. Earth Sci./Rev. can. sci. Terre 42(12): 2097-2101 (2005) 
Abstract: We present the first records of Mesozoic fossil birds to be
described from British Columbia. New fossil avians from the Campanian
Northumberland Formation on Hornby Island (Strait of Georgia) add to the
known distributions of two groups of fossil birds during the latter stage
of the Mesozoic. New specimens referred to the clades Ornithurae and
Enantiornithes demonstrate the presence of a diverse marine avifauna in
Canadian Pacific marine sediments prior to the Cretaceous?Tertiary (K?T)
boundary. These new fossil bird remains from coastal rocks on the west
coast of British Columbia lend further support to suggestions that
ocean-going birds were important constituents of marine ecosystems in the
terminal stages of the Mesozoic. 





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