''Novacaesareala'' is a
genus of prehistoric
bird. It is known only from the
fossil remains of a single partial wing of the
species ''Novacaesareala hungerfordi''. This was found in
Hornerstown Formation deposits, probably from the latest
Cretaceous (
Maastrichtian) or Early
Paleocene (
Danian); it lived around 66-65
million years ago on the western shores of the
Atlantic, where now is
New Jersey.
It appears to have been most similar to ''
Torotix clemensi
''Torotix'' is a Late Cretaceous genus of aquatic birds. They lived along the shores of the Western Interior Seaway, but it is not clear whether they were seabirds or freshwater birds, as the genus is only known from a humerus. Consequently ...
'', an even more enigmatic bird from around the same time. Consequently, it might be placed in the Torotigidae. In any case, this species (as well as ''Torotix'') seem to have been
seabirds, most probably relatives of the
Procellariiformes and/or some lineage of the
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 ...
"
Pelecaniformes".
Mayr and Scofield (2016) considered potential
phaethontiform affinities for ''Novacaesareala'', which would make it most closely related to living
tropicbirds and the oldest representative of the group. Its wing structure closely resembles that of the fossil tropicbird ''
Zhylgaia''; however, ''Novacaesareala'' is estimated to have been larger than any other tropicbird, extinct or extant.
Footnotes
References
* (2004): The Theropod Database
Phylogeny of taxa Retrieved 2013-MAR-02.
Basal Neoaves
Bird genera
Paleocene birds
Paleogene birds of North America
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