RE: Brodavis, new freshwater Late Cretaceous hesperornithiform from Asia and North America

[Anthony Docimo <keenir@hotmail.com>]

> Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:04:53 -0800
 
> A new family, Brodavidae, with one new genus and four species,
 
 One new genus so far.  Time alone will tell us how many genera it will come to 
have.
 
> records of the order Hesperornithiformes, an extinct group of diving
> birds whose marine members had probably lost their powers of flight by
> the end of the Early Cretaceous. Minimal pachyostosis in the
> freshwater form suggests the possibility of volant abilities.
 
I would hazard a guess that the freshwater forms don't need to have much 
pachyostosis, because they don't need to dive as deeply or for as long as their 
marine kin.