__NOTOC__ ''Laornis'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of a prehistoric neornithine

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s, known only from Specimen YPM 820, a single

tibiotarsus The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia. A similar structure also occurred in the Mesozoic Heterodontosauridae. These sm ...

leg bone discovered in the late 19th century. Consequently, the genus is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

, containing only the

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

''Laornis edvardsianus''. Regarding its

scientific name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

, ''Laornis'' means "stone bird", from

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''lao'' "stone" + ''ornis'' "bird". ''edvardsianus'' honors

Alphonse Milne-Edwards Alphonse Milne-Edwards (Paris, 13 October 1835 – Paris, 21 April 1900) was a French mammalogist, ornithologist, and carcinologist. He was English in origin, the son of Henri Milne-Edwards and grandson of Bryan Edwards, a Jamaican planter who se ...

, to compliment the French

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

on his landmark study ''Recherches Anatomiques et Paleontologiques pour servir a l'Histoire des Oiseaux Fossiles de la France'', the second part of which was nearing completion at that time. It was found in Late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

or Early

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...

sediments of the

Hornerstown Formation The Hornerstown Formation is a Paleogene or latest Mesozoic geologic formation in New Jersey.Weishampel, et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution." Pp. 517-607. The age of these deposits have been controversial. While most fossils are of animals typ ...

at the Birmingham

Marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part o ...

Pits,

Pemberton Township, New Jersey Pemberton Township is a township in Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the township's population was 26,903, a drop of 1,009 from the 2010 census count of 27,912, which reflected a decline of 779 (� ...

, United States (39°59'N, 74°43'W). The deposits were laid down at about 66–63 Ma (

million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago). ...

). The bone is rather distinct but not very diagnostic. Its general shape suggests that ''Laornis'' was a semi-aquatic bird with longish legs and a body at least the size of a large goose. It may have been a wading bird, in which case it stood probably around one meter (3–4 ft) tall in life, depending on how long its legs and neck were exactly, which of course cannot be told from the one known bone. On the other hand, it might have been a larger

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...

with proportionally shorter legs. It has variously been allied with the

Charadriiformes Charadriiformes (, from ''Charadrius'', the type genus of family Charadriidae) is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. It includes about 390 species and has members in all parts of the world. Most charadriiform birds live near water an ...

and the

Gruiformes The Gruiformes are an order (biology), order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird family (biology), families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like". Traditionally, a number of wading and t ...

, and is tentatively placed in a family of its own, Laornithidae. It may be considered some kind of basal gruiform, or more probably part of an ancestral lineage related to the common ancestor of gruiform, charadriiform, and/or any or all other modern "wading" bird families. It might have been one of the extinct stilt-legged

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which in ...

of the

Presbyornithidae Presbyornithidae is an extinct group of birds with a global distribution. They had evolved by the late Cretaceous period and became extinct during the early Miocene. Initially, they were believed to present a mix of characters shown by waterbirds ...

, and it cannot even be excluded that it was an ancient

pseudotooth bird The Pelagornithidae, commonly called pelagornithids, pseudodontorns, bony-toothed birds, false-toothed birds or pseudotooth birds, are a prehistoric family (biology), family of large seabirds. Their fossil remains have been found all over the wor ...

, seabirds of unclear affiliation that

evolved Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation t ...

to immense proportions in the

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

but by the time of ''Laornis'' probably were mostly the size of a large

petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes. Description The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group (all except the albatross f ...

References

External links

Topographic map of the type locality
from

TopoQuest TopoQuest is a free web mapping service built on Open-source software, open source software that provides internet-based topographic maps for most of the United States. The site is one of three internet services used by Wikipedia for providing topo ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6487938 Basal Neoaves Prehistoric bird genera Late Cretaceous birds of North America Paleogene birds of North America Fossil taxa described in 1870