AW: Oryctos Is Back

[evelyn sobielski <koreke77@yahoo.de>]

Andrzej Elzanowski, The avian femur: morphology and terminology of the lateral 
condyle. Oryctos 7, 1-5.

Nice to know. 


Richard Hinchliffe, Bird wing digits & their homologies: reassessment of 
developmental evidence for a 2,3,4 identity. Oryctos 7, 7-12.

I would like to see how he found this out. How is the situation in
* crocs
* lizards
* snakes (what do the *genes* do there?)
* platypus
[* Pig-footed Bandicoot (Hah! But arguably you'd VERY much want to have THIS in 
too.)]
* domestic dog


Kenneth E. Campbell, The manus of Archaeopterygians: implications for avian 
ancestry. Oryctos 7, 13-26.

It might have been nice to include a pro-1,2,3,4 paper instead. Regardless, did 
he include scansoriopterygids (+ the WHOLE diversity of birds older than 100 
Ma)? Because otherwise Archie is, due to its completely unclear (except "closer 
than _Rahonavis_" and such) relation to Neornithes, a rather lame choice.


David A. Burnham, A review of the Early Cretaceous Jehol Group on northeastern 
China and a revision of concerning the origin of flight paradigm. Oryctos 7, 
27-43.

There might be something interesting in there, but I think much of it has been 
said before.


Larry D. Martin, Origins of avian flight â a new perspective. Oryctos 7, 
45-54.

Let me spell it out again: "scansoriopterygids". It is not THAT hard. They're 
even juvies, just as we'd need them for devo-anatomy studies!


Attila Ãsi, Enantiornithine bird remains from the Late Cretaceous of Hungary. 
Oryctos 7, 55-60.

Hear hear! Good work. If a cladistic analysis is included, splendid work 
indeed. Taxa like _Wyleyia_ and each and every Hungarian and Romanian Mesozoic 
"odd theroipodish thing" deserve to be included when one is at it. The Mesozoic 
avifauna of the Southeast European archipelago(es) is *very* interesting. And I 
suppose therein lies the key to a lot else too - widespread transoceanic 
dispersal was not common among birds until the mid-late Cretaceous. The easiest 
way to get there from anywhere really *old* birds are known involved generous 
island hopping at least. Habitat - think Gulf of Tonkin with less advanced 
angiosperms.


Larry D. Martin & Virginia L. Naples, Mandibular kinesis in Hesperornis. 
Oryctos 7, 61-65.

Nice to know. Also would argue against any relation to any Neornithes.


Gerald Mayr, The higher-level phylogeny of birds - when morphology, 
molecules,and fossils coincide. Oryctos 7, 67-74.

He has published quite some on this issue recently. Good to see that someone 
points out how much of the data actually *does* agree. But if you have followed 
the issue, there is likely little new here.


Eric Buffetaut, First evidence of the giant bird Gastornis from southern 
Europe: a tibiotarsus from the Lower Eocene of Saint-Papoul (Aude, southern 
France). Oryctos 7, 75-82.

This is nice to know. See 
Dughi & Sirugue (1959) Sur des fragments de coquilles d'oeufs fossiles de 
l'EocÃne de Basse-Provence. C. R. Hebd. Acad. Sci. Paris 249: 959-961
and
Fabre-Taxy & Touraine (1960) Gisements d'Åufs d'Oiseaux de trÃs grande taille 
dans l'EocÃne de Provence. C. R. Hebd. Acad. Sci. Paris 250(23): 3870-3871
for the eggs I think he refers to.


Kazuhiko Sakurai, Masaichi Kimura & Takayuki Katoh, A new penguin-like bird 
(Pelecaniformes:Plotopteridae) from the Late Oligocene Tokoro Formation, 
northeastern Hokkaido, Japan. Oryctos 7, 83-94.

Always good to have.


Ursula B. GÃhlich & Marco Pavia, A new species of Palaeortyx (Aves: 
Galliformes: Phasianidae) from the Neogene of Gargano, Italy. Oryctos 7, 95-108.

Early or late Gargano fauna? The abstract does not tell :(


Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche & Claudia Tambussi,South American fossil penguins: 
a systematic update. Oryctos 7, 109-127.

"During the last few years, we have worked on the systematics and paleobiology 
of the South American and Antarctic fossil penguins."- Indeed. Good to see the 
effort was fruitful.


Stig A. Walsh, Norman MacLeod & Mark OâNeill, Analysis of spheniscid humerus 
and tarsometatarsus morphological variability using DAISY automated image 
recognition. Oryctos 7, 129-136.

(to explain: the tarsometatarsus of penguins fossilizes extremely well by bird 
standards, but it is known to vary much within species.)


Claudia Patricia Tambussi & Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche, Skull shape analysis 
and diet of South American fossil penguins (Sphenisciformes). Oryctos 7, 
137-145.

This is also liable to be very nice.


Antoine Louchart, Yohannes Haile-Selassie, Patrick Vignaud, Andossa Likius & 
Michel Brunet, Fossil birds from the Late Miocene of Chad and Ethiopia and 
zoogeographical implications. Oryctos 7, 147-167.

Nothing revolutionary, but good to have.


CÃcile Mourer-Chauvirà & Denis Geraads, The Struthionidae and Pelagornithidae 
(Aves: Struthioniformes, Odontopterygiformes) from the late Pliocene of Ahl Al 
Oughlam, Morocco. Oryctos 7, 169-187.

_Struthio asiaticus_? Not one of the proto-_camelus_ lineages? THAT I would 
very much like to see!


Walter E. Boles, Systematics of the fossil Australian giant megapodes Progura 
(Aves: Megapodiidae). Oryctos 7, 191-211.

This is a long-awaited paper; most people interested in this stuff will 
probably know the results.


Nikita V. Zelenkov, Evgeny N. Kurochkin, Alexander A. Karhu & Peter Ballmann, 
Birds of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene from the Palaeolithic Djuktai Cave 
site of Yakutia, Eastern Siberia. Oryctos 7, 213-222.

COLD steppe for musch of the time that is.


Joanne H. Cooper & Alan J. D. Tennyson, Wrecks and residents: the fossil gadfly 
petrels (Pterodroma spp.) of the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. Oryctos 7, 
223-244.

I *think* I have seen more on this unnamed extinct sp. in Notornis or NZJZ.


Tommy Tyrberg, The Late Pleistocene Continental Avian extinction â an 
evaluation of the fossil evidence. Oryctos 7, 245-265.

Looks very nice. Tommy, do you have a PDF?


Vasily A. Ilyinsky, Locomotor Adaptations in the Hindlimbs of Owls: the 
Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia), compared to the Little Owl (Athene noctua). 
Oryctos 7, 267-272.

Mascarene, Caribbean, Mediterranean and Hawaiian prehistoric taxa might be 
ivestigated in this light.


Regards,

Eike

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