Re: Avian origins: new analysis confirms ancient beginnings

["T. Michael Keesey" <keesey@gmail.com>]

On Feb 6, 2008 1:50 PM, evelyn sobielski <koreke77@yahoo.de> wrote:
>
> > least* five lineages
> > (pan-Palaeognathae, pan-Galliformes, pan-Anhimidae,
> > pan-Anseres, and
> > pan-Neoaves) by the end of the Mesozoic.
>
> Diatryma ancestors would also have been a distinct
> lineage, no?

Whoops, my bad. At least six lineages. (Any other stem-anseriforms
we're forgetting?)

> If you're willing to accept some K-Pg boundary
> seabirds as Procellariifomes (sans tropicbirds) on
> more inference than evidence, there is a whole lot of
> lineages that can be added.

Yes, I would imagine the actual number is probably quite a bit higher
than six, probably including several neoavian lineages. But who knows?

> the pan-ciconiiform-pan-pelecaniform clade

(I think "ciconiiform-pelecaniform clade" or "ciconiiform-pelecaniform
crown group" is sufficient.)

> We have a few bones of
> what seem proto-procellariiforms out there around the
> boundary, but at present nobody tried to check out
> whether they're not simply very plesiomorphic basal
> members of the tubenose-et-al clade.

Interesting.

> > so I don't know where they got the 60 Mya figure from.
>
> Not from the paper.

Well, that's a relief.

-- 
T. Michael Keesey
Director of Technology
Exopolis, Inc.
2894 Rowena Avenue Ste. B
Los Angeles, California 90039
http://exopolis.com/
--
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