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1 July 2012 A New Genus and Species of Pelagornithidae with Well-Preserved Pseudodentition and Further Avian Remains from the Middle Eocene of the Ukraine
Gerald Mayr, Evgenij Zvonok
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Abstract

We describe new avian remains from the middle Eocene of eastern Ukraine. The material includes well-preserved bones of a small species of Pelagornithidae (bony-toothed birds), which was tentatively identified as Odontopteryx toliapica in an earlier study. The Ukrainian pelagornithid is, however, distinguished from this species and other early Eocene pelagornithids in several features, and we describe it as Lutetodontopteryx tethyensis, gen. et sp. nov. The new material includes the most complete pseudodentition of a small Paleogene pelagornithid, and details of pseudotooth morphology strengthen previous assumptions that the pseudodentition of pelagornithids derives from tooth-specific developmental programs and is homologous to true avian teeth on a molecular level. Most major postcranial bones of L. tethyensis are represented by well-preserved bones, and in some derived morphological features the Ukrainian species agrees with Neogene pelagornithids but differs from the early Eocene Dasornis species. We also report a partial sternum of a much larger bony-toothed bird, which resembles the sternum of the middle Eocene Gigantornis eaglesomei. We further describe previously unknown skeletal elements of the loon Colymbiculus udovichenkoi (Gaviiformes), which show that this species substantially differs, in both wing and leg morphology, from the well-known gaviiform stem-group taxon Colymboides.

© 2012 by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
Gerald Mayr and Evgenij Zvonok "A New Genus and Species of Pelagornithidae with Well-Preserved Pseudodentition and Further Avian Remains from the Middle Eocene of the Ukraine," Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32(4), 914-925, (1 July 2012). https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2012.676114
Received: 17 January 2011; Accepted: 1 March 2012; Published: 1 July 2012
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