Paleogene_Fossil_Birds.pdf

Paleogene Fossil Birds

Gerald Mayr

Paleogene Fossil Birds

Gerald Mayr

Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg

Sektion Ornithologie

Senckenberganlage 25

D-60325 Frankfurt am Main

Germany

e-mail: Gerald.Mayr@senckenberg.de

ISBN 978-3-540-89627-2

e-ISBN 978-3-540-89628-9

DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-89628-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008940962

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Preface

Since birds are predominantly diurnal and often quite vociferous animals, their

behavior and ecological requirements are probably better studied than those of any

other vertebrate group. Detailed knowledge of their evolutionary history is, how-

ever, still limited to a small circle of specialists, and there is a widespread belief that

the avian fossil record is poor. This is certainly true if the abundance of bird bones

is compared with that of mammalian teeth, which are robust enough to survive even

rough depositional environments and collection techniques. In many fossil locali-

ties complete skeletons and postcranial elements of birds are, however, not much

rarer than those of other small land vertebrates. Numerous avian fossils in collec-

tions worldwide have remained further unstudied for decades, so the significant

underrepresentation of birds in vertebrate paleontology seems to be due to a low

number of specialists rather than a low number of fossils.

Concerning certain geological periods and geographic areas, our knowledge of

the early evolutionary history of birds is anything but poor. In fact, so many new

fossils were described during the past two decades that it becomes increasingly

difficult for a single person to cover the whole field of paleornithology.

This book gives an account of the evolution of modern birds in the first half of

the Cenozoic, aiming not only at specialists in the field of paleornithology, but also

at ornithologists and paleontologists in need of detailed information, either for the

calibration of molecular data or to set Paleogene faunas into a full context. Given

the current pace of new discoveries, I am not cherishing the illusion that this survey

will remain up to date for a long time. I do hope, however, that the overall frame-

work outlined for the early diversity and evolution of modern birds will form a

stable basis for future studies, and that the readers will find the book a useful source

for their own research.

Frankfurt am Main

Gerald Mayr

October 2008

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Sven Tränkner for taking the photographs, Cécile Mourer-

Chauviré for discussions on the fossil birds from the Quercy fissure fillings, and

Albrecht Manegold for insightful comments on parts of the manuscript. For provid-

ing photographs of fossil specimens, I thank Herculano Alvarenga, Julia Clarke,

Ewan Fordyce, James Goedert, Peter Houde, Dan Ksepka, Bent Lindow, Cécile

Mourer-Chauviré, Norbert Micklich, and Ilka Weidig. Access to fossil specimens

was kindly provided by Walter Boles, Elvira Brahm, Sandra Chapman, Michael

Daniels, Dino Frey, Norbert Hauschke, Meinolf Hellmund, Peter Houde, Norbert

Micklich, Cécile Mourer-Chauviré, Wolfgang Munk, Burkhard Pohl, Stephan

Schaal, Thierry Smith, and Basil Thüring. I am further obliged to Dieter Czeschlik

for enabling this book project, and Anette Lindqvist and Thavamani Saravanan for

their efforts in the production of this book. Above all, however, I thank my wife,

Eun-Joo, for her patience and moral support during the preparatory stage of this

work.

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