Pelagornithidae

Pelagornithidae Temporal range: Late Paleocene - Early Pliocene
Osteodontornis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Pelecaniformes
Family:	Pelagornithidae Fürbringer, 1888
Genera
Caspiodontornis Cyphornis Dasornis Gigantornis Macrodontopteryx Odontopteryx Osteodontornis Palaeochenoides Pelagornis Pseudodontornis Tympanoneisiotes

The Pelagornithidae or pseudo-tooth birds were a family of large seabirds from the order Pelecaniformes, which were common worldwide from the Late Paleocene to the Late Pliocene; undetermined species even occurring in Middle Eocene Antarctica.

File:Odontopteryx toliapicus.jpg

Skull of Odontopteryx toliapicus restored

They had wingspans up to 6 m (20 ft) and were somewhat similar to albatrosses, although they had a large bill with tooth-like projections that enabled them to pick up slippery prey like fish or squids more easily. Their similarities with the Procellariiformes go so far that some paleontologists see them as possibly proving the common origin of pelicans and the tubenoses; others are more reserved and regard them far less close to these groups.

The oldest specimens are the Late Paleocene Pseudodontornis tenuirostris of Herne Bay and Odontopteryx tschulensis of Kazakhstan. 50 million years later, a Pelagornis from Morocco which lived just a few millions of years ago, ends the known reign of pseudo-tooth birds. Humans apparently missed encountering these birds by a hair's breadth of evolutionary time.

Neptuniavis from the London Clay Early Eocene of England seems somewhat intermediate but is not known from much material, and Argilliornis from the same deposits may belong here too. The most well-known genus in the family is Osteodontornis, which lived in the Northern Hemisphere from the Early Oligocene to the Pliocene and was one of the largest birds of its time.

The unusually intact fossilized skull of a giant, bony-toothed seabird that lived up to 10 million years ago was found on Peru's arid southern coast on February 2009. The fossil is the best-preserved pelagornithid cranium ever found, said Rodolfo Salas, head of vertebrate paleontology at Peru's National History Museum.

References

• Olson, Storrs L. (1985): The fossil record of birds. In: Farner, D.S.; King, J.R. & Parkes, Kenneth C. (eds.): Avian Biology 8: 79-238. Academic Press, New York.
• Stilwell, Jeffrey D.; Jones, Craig M.; Levy, Richard H. & Harwood, David M. (1998): First fossil bird from East Antarctica. Antarctic Journal of the United States 33(1): 12-16. PDF fulltext