Messelasturidae
| Messelasturidae | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Clade: | Eufalconimorphae |
| Family: | †Messelasturidae Mayr 2005 |
| Genera | |
| |
Messelasturidae is an extinct family of carnivorous birds, strongly convergent with modern hawks and falcons. Initially interpreted as stem-owls,[2] more recent studies have shown that they are actually closely related to modern parrots and are in the same order.[3][4]
References
- ^ Gerald Mayr; Sophie Hervet; Eric Buffetaut (2018). "On the diverse and widely ignored Paleocene avifauna of Menat (Puy-de-Dôme, France): new taxonomic records and unusual soft tissue preservation". Geological Magazine. in press. doi:10.1017/S0016756818000080.
- ^ D. S. Peters. 1994. Messelastur gratulator n. gen. n. spec., ein Greifvogel as der Grube Messel (Aves: Accipitridae). Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 170:3-9
- ^ G. Mayr. 2011. Well-preserved new skeleton of the Middle Eocene Messelastur substantiates sister group relationship between Messelasturidae and Halcyornithidae (Aves, ? Pan-Psittaciformes). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 9(1):159-171 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]
- ^ Gerald Mayr, Paleogene Fossil Birds