For almost as long as there has been an online paleontology community, there have been online Lists of Dinosaurs. An entire article could probably be written on the "List of Dinosaurs" phenomenon. To be fair, one can find taxonomic lists of nearly any sufficiently charismatic group of organisms in existence, but the dinosaur enthusiast community appears to be exceptional for the number of times it has independently compiled the "List of Dinosaurs". Examples of some that are still around include George Olshevsky's Dinosaur Genera List, Thomas Holtz's supplement to his dinosaur encyclopedia (last updated in early 2012), and The Compact Thescelosaurus (successor to Thescelosaurus.com). Of course, these lists don't include every dinosaur. They generally only cover non-avialan dinosaurs or, at most, Mesozoic dinosaurs.
A few months after I started this blog in 2010, I wanted in on the fun. I wasn't quite as ambitious as try and make my own version of the List of Every Mesozoic Dinosaur, but I did want to make a list of Mesozoic maniraptors. With all the Lists of Dinosaurs that were already in existence for me to reference, it didn't take long for me to set one up. My list likely doesn't do anything that the other Lists of Dinosaurs don't. It's written for most part in very non-technical language and doesn't cite any technical sources. Its main function over the years has probably been to help myself keep track of Mesozoic maniraptors more than anything else.
However, I am not only interested in Mesozoic maniraptors. Ever since its inception, the heading to my list included the sentence: "I hope to include the Cenozoic taxa someday, but for now I'm focusing on the Mesozoic ones." A comprehensive, up to date list of extinct Cenozoic birds remained an empty niche, but that also made starting one up at all much more challenging. Even Wikipedia doesn't have articles on all Cenozoic extinct birds at the time of writing.
Well, I have now taken the plunge. I have started a separate page on the blog where I've compiled a list of Cenozoic birds.
Before anyone gets too excited, I'd like to make clear that my list does not completely fill the void that is there. At present, the list only includes entirely extinct bird genera, so it does not include extinct species that are classified in the same genera as still-living species. It is possible that I will change that one day. (Will it take another eight years? We'll find out.)
It is very unlikely though that I will ever compile my own list of bird genera known only from extant members. This is due to the immense amount of work that would be required, as well as the fact that several lists of extant birds already exist (a couple of my favorite examples being Taxonomy in Flux and the IOC World Bird List). I suppose if Mesozoic dinosaur fans and Cenozoic dinosaur fans have anything in common beyond liking dinosaurs, it's an inordinate fondness for lists!
My Cenozoic extinct bird list is written in the same non-technical style as my Mesozoic maniraptor list. However, I did have to consult numerous technical publications to compile it. I'd like to highlight in particular Gerald Mayr's Avian Evolution and Paleogene Fossil Birds, Jirí Mlíkovsky's Cenozoic Birds of the World (yes, I am aware of the caveats associated with this work), and Pierce Brodkorb's Catalogue of Fossil Birds. If it weren't for these books, my task would likely have been almost impossible to complete. Some other (less technical) sources of importance were Julian Hume's Extinct Birds and Meig Dickson's A Dinosaur A Day (which, given its coverage of extant birds, is almost certainly the most ambitious List of Dinosaurs of all!).
Given the state of affairs, I would be surprised if I really had managed to include every extinct Cenozoic bird taxon on my first try, so if you spot any errors or omissions, please leave a comment! Keep in mind though that I have excluded certain taxa if they are now considered congeneric with extant taxa or if their genus name is preoccupied and a replacement name has not yet been coined.
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Telmabates is a synonym of Presbyornis (Feduccia & McGrew, 1974).
ReplyDeleteCapitonides is a synonym of Trachyphonus (Olson, 1991).
Calcardea is a gruiform (Mayr, 2016).
Re Calcardea: never mind, I wasn't aware of Mayr et al. (2018).
DeleteTelmabates was reinstated by Ericson (2000) (which doesn't appear to be available anywhere online, unfortunately) and is in current use.
DeleteI still see Capitonides used by recent papers on fossil piciforms, but I'll add a note mentioning that it might belong to Trachyphonus.
Ericson, P.G.P. 2000. Systematic revision, skeletal anatomy, and paleoecology of the New World early Tertiary Presbyornithidae (Aves: Anseriformes). PaleoBios 20: 1-23.
Perplexicervix is likely an anseriform per its original description, while Brontornis is almost certainly not one (Worthy et al., 2017).
ReplyDeleteWhy not make a single section for galloanserines so that dromornithids & pelagornithids aren't clogging up the miscellanea?
The original description of Perplexicervix says, "[...] P. microcephalon most closely resembles the anseriform Anhimidae and the Cathartidae in overall morphology, but the incomplete knowledge of its osteology does not allow an reliable phylogenetic assignment of the peculiar fossil species." The review of Messel birds by Mayr (2017) also lists its affinities as unknown, despite acknowledging its similarities to screamers.
DeleteI'm familiar with Worthy et al. (2017) and I think they make a good case regarding Brontornis; I'm simply keeping the door open to responses from other researchers given that it's a fairly recent study. Angst and Buffetaut continue to favor anseriform affinities in Paleobiology of Giant Flightless Birds, though they likely wrote it before the Worthy et al. paper came out.
I considered making one section for galloanserans, but I decided to split it given that the anseriform and galliforms fossil records are both fairly extensive (a subjective judgment, I know). There are only a handful of gastornithiform genera anyway so I don't think they take up that much space, and we're not sure that pelagornithids are galloanserans.
Isn't Eocuculus part of the Pumiliornis group?
ReplyDeleteMayr (2015) included Eocuculus in the same analyses as a variety of possible stem-passerines (including Psittacopes) and didn't find it to clade with any of them.
DeleteDyke & Crowe (2008) found Gallinuloides to be a crown galliform even when Mayr's characters were included.
ReplyDeleteKsepka (2009) further updated their dataset and found stem-galliform affinities to be better supported after all.
DeleteAccording to Strauch (1985), Pinguinus is phylogenetically nested inside Alca.
ReplyDeleteSmith and Clarke (2015) found Alca to either form a clade exclusive of Pinguinus or a polytomy between several fossil Alca species, a "core" Alca group, and Pinguinus. So while paraphyly of Alca is quite plausible, that's not strong enough evidence to sink Pinguinus yet in my opinion, and none of the major ornithological organizations appear to have adopted such a change.
DeleteGood work, and (speaking as another compiler) good luck!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteYou forgot Callornis (which Buffetaut suggests is a potentially valid brontornithid/brontornithine).
ReplyDeleteThanks, I'll add it.
Delete