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Ben CreislerA follow-up paper:(I don't have access to the text and refs list. So far, I can't find a published article online by Buffetaut and Angst that replies to the original Mayr paper.)ÂÂ=========
Gerald Mayr, Vlad Codrea, Alexandru Solomon, Marian Bordeianu & Thierry Smith (2020)
Reply to comments on âA well-preserved pelvis from the Maastrichtian of Romania suggests that the enigmatic Gargantuavis is neither an ornithurine bird nor an insular endemicâ
Cretaceous Research 104465 (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104465
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667120300872
We appreciate the comments of Buffetaut and Angst on our recent study of a Gargantuavis-like pelvis from the Late Cretaceous of Romania. We consider some of their points to be valid, but maintain our conclusion on the likely absence of a glycogen body in Gargantuavis and the lack of fusion of the pelvic elements in the acetabular region. Both characters conflict with a classification of the taxon into Ornithurae. We also uphold our hypothesis that Gargantuavis is possibly related to the enigmatic theropod Balaur bondoc.
===On Mon, Oct 14, 2019 at 11:34 AM Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com> wrote:Ben CreislerA new paper:Gerald Mayr, Vlad Codrea, Alexandru Solomon, Marian Bordeianu & Thierry Smith (2019)
A well-preserved pelvis from the Maastrichtian of Romania suggests that the enigmatic Gargantuavis is neither an ornithurine bird nor an insular endemic.
Cretaceous Research (advance online publication)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2019.104271
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667119302289
We describe a well-preserved pelvis from the Maastrichtian SÃnpetru Formation of the HaÅeg Basin in Romania. The fossil closely resembles the pelvis of Gargantuavis philoinos from the Ibero-Armorican Peninsula, but differs in a smaller size and a few morphological features. It constitutes the first record of Gargantuavis outside the Ibero-Armorican Island and is more complete than any of the previously known Gargantuavis pelves. The new fossil allows the recognition of characteristics previously unknown for Gargantuavis. These include the presence of large supratrochanteric processes, the absence of a widened midsection of the synsacrum (which indicates the absence of a glycogen body), and the absence of fusion between the pelvic bones at the level of the acetabulum. The latter two features suggest that Gargantuavis is not closely related to the Ornithurae and the taxon may even fall outside the Ornithothoraces, the clade including Enantiornithes and Ornithuromorpha. Recognition of Gargantuavis in the fauna of the HaÅeg Island is of particular significance, because various theropods have been described from the Upper Cretaceous of Romania. The Romanian pelvis is of similar-size to Elopteryx nopcsai, which was described as avian and is based on hindlimb elements, and it also shows some similarities to the pelvis of the unusual theropod Balaur bondoc. The new fossil furthermore disproves the hypothesis that the flight capabilities of Gargantuavis were lost in an insular environment of the Ibero-Armorican Island, and raises the possibility that Gargantuavis, Elopteryx, and Balaur belong to a distinctive theropod clade of the Late Cretaceous European archipelago.