New Kiwi-like Paleognath Bird Discovered In The Green River Formation

[Anchiornis]

Calciavis grandei: An awesome new Green River bird species for all you fossil hunters in Wyoming!

Palaeoart (by Velizar Simeonovski)

From SciNews:

"A nearly 50-million-year-old bird fossil unearthed in Wyoming represents a new species that is a close relative of living kiwis, ostriches, and emus, according to a team of paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

The ancient bird, named Calciavis grandei, is believed to be roughly the size of a chicken and was mostly ground-dwelling, only flying in short bursts to escape predators.

“This is among one of the earliest well-represented bird species after the age of large dinosaurs,” said co-author Dr. Sterling Nesbitt, from Virginia Tech.

The exceptionally well-preserved specimen of Calciavis grandei dating from the Eocene epoch — with bones, feathers, and fossilized soft tissues — was found more than a decade ago in the Green River Formation, a former lake bed.

The Eocene lake is best known for producing scores of complete fish skeleton fossils, but other fossils such as other birds, plants, crocodilians, turtles, bats, and mammals from an ecosystem 50 million years old.

According to Dr. Nesbitt and his colleague, Prof. Julia Clarke from the American Museum of Natural History, Calciavis grandei belongs to the extinct group of early Palaeognathae birds, the Lithornithidae.

The bird is a close relative of the modern-day kiwis, ostriches, and tinamous now living in the southern continents."

Full article at SciNews.

Research paper from the AMNH.

Fossil:

[doushantuo]

Thanks,Anchi.The Eocene worldwide has turned up good avian fossils .

Edited July 6, 2016 by doushantuo

[Missourian]

1. Just wow!

2. Too bad the head's gone.

3. The fish is a nice touch.

[Shamalama]

I second Missourian for the missing head comment. That is a fantastic fossil!

[FossilDudeCO]

Don't know why I saw this 4 days late but....SWEET!

Thanks for sharing!

[aerogrower]

This is incredible. My wife and I raise Emus , and I wondered what some of the distant relatives were?  The detail in what looks like the feathers that make up the tail amazing!!

[jpc]

This specimen was previously labeled as a specimen of another species of Lithornithid... 

 

 

and the skull is indeed in there.. the neck we see is backwards from what you expect... the base of the neck is off to the left and the head is on the other end of it, tucked in under the leg bones.  Tough to see, but it is there.