Novacaesareala
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| Novacaesareala Fossil range: see text |
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Fossil
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| Novacaesareala hungerfordi Parris & Hope, 2002 |
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Novacaesareala hungerfordorum Ford (unjustified emendation) |
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 from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) or Early Paleocene (Danian); it lived somewhere between 67 and 63 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, 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 (in the modern sense, i.e. excluding tropicbirds) or some lineage of the paraphyletic "Pelecaniformes".[1]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Mortimer (2004)
[edit] References
- Mortimer, Michael (2004): The Theropod Database: Phylogeny of taxa. Retrieved 2007-NOV-04.
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