''Neanis'' is an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
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
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 ...
probably related to
woodpecker
Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...
s and
toucan
Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five ge ...
s. It contains at least one species, ''N. schucherti''; ''N. kistneri'' resembles this, but it probably belongs to a distinct genus and may not be closely related. Both are known from the Late
Wasatchian
The Wasatchian North American Stage on the geologic timescale is the North American faunal stage according to the North American Land Mammal Ages chronology (NALMA), typically set from 55,400,000 to 50,300,000 years BP lasting .
It is usually co ...
(51-52
MYA) stratum of the Early
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...
Green River Formation
The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes in three basins along the present-day Green River in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The sediments are deposited in very fine ...
of the Western-Central USA. ''"N." kistneri'' is known from one fairly complete, but not very well preserved skeleton, whereas of ''N. schucherti'' even less material was found.
The systematic assignment of the genus (apart from the problems posed by ''"N." kistneri'') is not well resolved. Initially, the genus (at that time only comprising the type species) was considered to be a
passeriform
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...
. ''"N." kistneri'' was described 60 years later as a species of the genus ''
Primobucco
''Primobucco'' is an extinct genus of bird placed in its own family, Primobucconidae.
The type species, ''Primobucco mcgrewi'', lived during the Lower Eocene of North America. It was initially described by American paleo-ornithologist Pierce ...
'', which then thought to be related to woodpeckers because it had a
zygodactyl
In biology, dactyly is the arrangement of digits (fingers and toes) on the hands, feet, or sometimes wings of a tetrapod animal. It comes from the Greek word δακτυλος (''dáktylos'') = "finger".
Sometimes the ending "-dactylia" is used ...
foot or at least could turn the outer toe backwards; some years later, several genera (including ''Primobucco'' and ''Neanis'') were put into a new
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
, the
Primobucconidae, which were thought to be a primitive kind of
puffbird
The puffbirds and their relatives in the near passerine family Bucconidae are tropical tree-dwelling insectivorous birds that are found from South America up to Mexico. Together with their closest relatives, the jacamars, they form a divergent li ...
.
However, it is now known that the primobucconids as originally defined were a
paraphyletic
In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...
assemblage including taxa as diverse as
Coliiformes and
Coraciiformes
The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful birds including the kingfishers, the bee-eaters, the rollers, the motmots, and the todies. They generally have syndactyly, with three forward-pointing toes (and toes 3 & 4 fused at their base) ...
. Indeed, the only remaining genus of the family is ''
Primobucco
''Primobucco'' is an extinct genus of bird placed in its own family, Primobucconidae.
The type species, ''Primobucco mcgrewi'', lived during the Lower Eocene of North America. It was initially described by American paleo-ornithologist Pierce ...
'' (without ''kistneri''), and the family as such has been moved to the
Coraciiformes
The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful birds including the kingfishers, the bee-eaters, the rollers, the motmots, and the todies. They generally have syndactyly, with three forward-pointing toes (and toes 3 & 4 fused at their base) ...
. The closest relatives of ''Neanis schucherti'' may be the
Piciformes
Nine families of largely arboreal birds make up the order Piciformes , the best-known of them being the Picidae, which includes the woodpeckers and close relatives. The Piciformes contain about 71 living genera with a little over 450 species, of ...
, or it might be an ancestral form in the piciform-coraciiform radiation. ''"N." kistneri'' seems more closely related to piciform birds. ''Neanis schucherti '' appears to share some traits with ''
Hassiavis'' and might even be a
cypselomorph
Strisores ( ) is a clade of birds that includes the living families and orders Caprimulgidae (nightjars, nighthawks and allies), Nyctibiidae (potoos), Steatornithidae (oilbirds), Podargidae (frogmouths), Apodiformes (swifts and hummingbirds ...
References
* Shufeldt, W. (1913): Fossil feathers and some heretofore undescribed fossil birds. ''J. Geology'' 21: 628–652.
Eocene birds
Prehistoric bird genera
Piciformes
Extinct birds of North America
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