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The cretaceous birds of New Jersey cover

The cretaceous birds of New Jersey

Chapter 24: Family Tytthostonychidae, new family
By Storrs L. Olson
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Archaeology & AnthropologyScience - Biology

About This Book

This revision presents fossil avian material from Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) marine deposits of New Jersey, incorporating newly collected specimens from the Inversand marl pits and reexamining century-old types. About eight genera and nine species are recognized, most assigned to a primitive charadriiform-like assemblage provisionally referred to the form family Graculavidae (including genera such as Graculavus, Telmatornis, Anatalavis, Laornis, and Palaeotringa). A new family, Tytthostonychidae, and the genus and species Tytthostonyx glauconiticus are proposed for a distinctive humerus possibly allied to procellariiform or pelecaniform birds. The fauna appears neognathous but cannot be placed in modern families.

Family Tytthostonychidae, new family

Type Genus.—Tytthostonyx, new genus.

Included Genera.—Type genus only.

Diagnosis.—Differs from the Lari and other Charadriiformes in (1) the low, narrow head; (2) the very large, long pectoral crest; (3) the virtual absence of the incisura capitis or any excavation for M. coracobrachialis cranialis; and (4) the shallow, indistinct tricipital grooves. It agrees with the Procellariiformes and differs from Phaethon and Limnofregata in characters 2 and 4, and in the large, deeply excavated brachial depression. The ectepicondylar spur is better developed than in any of the Pelecaniformes but not as well developed as in the Procellariiformes. The apparently very broad pectoral crest extends much farther distally than in any of the Procellariiformes or even in Limnofregata, to which the fossil is somewhat more similar in this respect. Tytthostonyx differs from any of the taxa compared in having the ventral condyle very rounded, extending distally well past the dorsal condyle.