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Asteriornis
| Asteriornis Temporal range: Late Maastrichtian
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Skull in lateral view | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Infraclass: | Neognathae |
| Clade: | Pangalloanserae |
| Genus: | †Asteriornis Field et al. 2020 |
| Type species | |
| †Asteriornis maastrichtensis Field et al. 2020
| |
Asteriornis is an extinct genus of bird from the Upper Cretaceous of Belgium. It is known from a single species called Asteriornis maastrichtensis.[1]
It was closely related to birds of the living superorder Galloanserae, such as chickens and ducks. Members of the genus were small, long-legged birds (~394 g).[2]
They lived near the coastline with more "primitive" types of birds such as Ichthyornis. Asteriornis is one of the oldest-known birds: it definitely belongs to the group Neornithes, the modern birds.
It has features of both galliformes (chicken-like birds) and anseriformes (duck-like birds). This shows its position as a close relative of the last common ancestor for both groups.[3]
- ↑ Popular account in Dinosaurs, National Geographic ISBN 1536-6596
- ↑ Field, Daniel J.; Lynner, Colton; Brown, Christian; Darroch, Simon A.F. (2013-11-29). "Skeletal correlates for body mass estimation in modern and fossil flying birds". PLOS ONE. 8 (11): e82000. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...882000F. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082000. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3843728. PMID 24312392.
- ↑ Padian, Kevin (18 March 2020). "Poultry through time \journal=Nature". Nature. 579 (7799): 351–352. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-00766-2. PMID 32188944.
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