Novacaesareala

Novacaesareala
Temporal range: Paleocene, 65 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Superorder: Neoaves
Genus: Novacaesareala
Parris & Hope, 2002
Species: N. hungerfordi
Binomial name
Novacaesareala hungerfordi
Parris & Hope, 2002

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, probably from the Early Paleocene (Danian); it lived around 64 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 and/or some lineage of the paraphyletic "Pelecaniformes".[1]

Footnotes

  1. Mortimer (2004)

References

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