Fossil plotopterid seabirds from the Eo-Oligocene of the Olympic Peninsula (Washington State, USA): descriptions and functional morphology.

ABSTRACT: The plotopterids (Aves, Plotopteridae) were a group of extinct wing-propelled marine birds that are known from Paleogene-aged sediments (Eocene to Miocene), mostly around the Pacific Rim (especially Japan and the northwest coast of North America). While these birds exhibit a strikingly similar wing morphology to penguins (Spheniscidae), they also share derived characters with pelecaniform birds that are absent in penguins and exhibit apparently superficial similarities with auks (Alcidae: Charadriiformes). Despite quite an abundant fossil record, these birds have been little studied, and in particular their functional morphology remains little understood. Here we present osteological overviews of specimens from the northwest coast of Washington state (USA). We give an amended diagnosis for

SUBMITTER: Dyke GJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3204969 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature