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"Palaeogene Fossil Birds", Gerald Mayr. Paleogene Fossil Birds. Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg Sektion Ornithologie, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. E-mail: Gerald.Mayr@senckenberg.de. ISBN 978-3-540-89627-2 e-ISBN 978-3-540-89628-9 DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-89628-9. Library of Congress Control Number: 2008940962 (c) 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. All rights reserved. This work is subject to copyright, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc., in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany. Printed on acid-free paper - springer.com Preface: Since birds are predominantly diurnal and often quite vociferous animals, their behavior and ecological requirements are probably better studied than those of any other vertebrate group. Detailed knowledge of their evolutionary history is, however, still limited to a small circle of specialists, and there is a widespread belief that the avian fossil record is poor. This is certainly true if the abundance of bird bones is compared with that of mammalian teeth, which are robust enough to survive even rough depositional environments and collection techniques. In many fossil localities complete skeletons and postcranial elements of birds are, however, not much rarer than those of other small land vertebrates. Numerous avian fossils in collections worldwide have remained unstudied for decades, so the significant underrepresentation of birds in vertebrate paleontology seems to be due to a low number of specialists rather than a low number of fossils. Concerning certain geological periods and geographic areas, our knowledge of the early evolutionary history of birds is anything but poor. In fact, so many new fossils were described during the past two decades that it becomes increasingly difficult for a single person to cover the whole field of palaeornithology. This book gives an account of the evolution of modern birds in the first half of the Cenozoic, aiming not only at specialists in the field of palaeornithology but also at ornithologists and paleontologists in need of detailed information, either for the calibration of molecular data or to set Palaeogene faunas into a full context. Given the current pace of new discoveries, I am not cherishing the illusion that this survey will remain up to date for a long time. I do hope, however, that the overall framework outlined for the early diversity and evolution of modern birds will form a stable basis for future studies, and that the readers will find the book a useful source for their own research. Frankfurt am Main Gerald Mayr October 2008 Ключевые слова: clay, taxon, modern relative, closely, derived, postorbital process, northern hemisphere, hornerstown formations, northern pacific, wetmore, late, ground upupidae, epicontinental sea, medium-sized phasianid, acosta hospitaleche, relationship, holotype, south dakota, including, oiseaux, messel, coracoid, sternal carina, seymour island, early eocene, pedal phalanx, tibiotarsus, europe, greatly widened, geol, clade, ammonium chloride, ungual phalanx, skeleton, cursorial, left, preserved, skeletal element, olson, untitled report, transitional shorebirds, evolution, record, group, penguin, nineteenth century, etadunna formations, jamieson bgm, eocene, circum-antarctic current, faune, neoavian taxa, aves, specie, process, bird, turgaiensis tugarinov, hemisphere, short, north dakota, cretaceous, ein schaufenster, forested environment, sect, exhibit, south america, sexually dimorphic, character polarity, mandibular process, mandibular ramus, presence, vertical surface, stem group, peters, facultatively zygodactyl, supraorbital process, mourer-chauvir?, oligocene, fossil record, salt gland, paratropical rainforest, early, america, material, london clay, downcurved, north america, paleogene, mourer chauvir?, le, sister, quercy, tightly joined, mourer, acta, van tuinen, standing height, representative, crown group, proximal, south, campbell, large, beak, international meeting, cnemial crest, derived character, intraramal joint, postcranial element, geiselensis fischer, turgai strait, cranial extremity, reported, long, south american, intermetacarpal process, north, small, mus, early oligocene, harrison, birds, icadyptes salasi, hypotarsal crest, potential competitor, vastan lignite, originally, wa, ha, size, france, paris gypsum, loeuff, paris basin, fossil, extant relative, late eocene, morphology, feature, taubat basin, aerial insectivore, latest cretaceous, extant, supracoracoideus nerve, supratendinal bridge, ml?kovsk?, germany, van valkenburgh, late oligocene, deposit, soc lond, south carolina, distal, based, middle eocene, tarsometatarsus, unit, junior synonym, patellar crest, affinity, bony teeth, avian, crown, sven trnkner, group representative, considered, locality, stomach content, daniels, mayr, london, cracraft, distinct sulcus, word vultures, basipterygoid process, stem, chauvir?, phylogenetic, pectoral girdle, eoceneoligocene boundary, paleocene, walker, trochlea, ecological niche, geisel valley, assigned, skull, omal extremity, future finding, oil shale, middle, bone, paleogene fossil, central america, miocene, van beneden, distinct barring, late cretaceous, molecular clock, wing, avian paleontology, analysis, sternal extremity, southern hemisphere, tadornini shelduck, major, remains, earliest, specimen, toe, formation, humerus, taubat estado, foot