Messelornis christata HESSE, 1989

Taxonomy

"Messel Rail"

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Gruiformes
Family: Messelornithidae
Genus: Messelornis
Species: Messelornis christata
Author Citation HESSE, 1989

Geological Time Scale

Eon: Phanerozoic
Era: Cenozoic
Period: Paleogene
Sub Period: None
Epoch: Eocene
International Age: Lutetian

Stratigraphy

Messel Formation

Provenance

Collector: T. Bastelberger
Date Collected: 06/01/1968
Acquired by: Field Collection

Location

Grube Messel
Messel near Darmstadt
Hessia
Germany

• eocene
• gruiformes
• messel
• messelornis

Comments

Here it is my pleasure to quote Auspex:
"Messelornis is often incorrectly referred to as the "Messel Rail". Although rails are in the same order (Gruiformes, along with the cranes), its closest living relative is the Sunbittern of the American tropics.

There are four named species (of two genera) in the family Messelornithidae: Messelornis cristata (only from Messel), M. nearctica (from the Eocene Green River Fm., USA), M. russelli (from the Paleocene of France), and Itardiornis hessae (from the Late Eocene-Early Oligocene fissure-fillings in Quercy, France).

According to Gerald Meyer in Paleocene Fossil Birds, there are over 500 specimens of M. cristata known from the Messel pit, constituting roughly half of the bird fossils found there. Interestingly, no juvenile specimens are known from there, which suggests that they did not nest nearby."

 

References:

Angelika Hesse (1988): Die Messelornithidae - eine neue Familie der Kranichartigen (Aves: Gruiformes: Rhynocheti) aus dem Tertiär Europas und Nordamerikas. In: Journal für Ornithologie, 129 (1): 83-95; Berlin.

Angelika Hesse (1990): Die Beschreibung der Messelornithidae (Aves: Gruiformes: Rhynocheti) aus dem Alttertiär Europas und Nordamerikas. Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft. ISBN 978392450067

Gerald Mayr (2009): Paleogene Fossil Birds. Springer. ISBN 9783540896272