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Juncitarsus (Eocene bird), relationship to flamingos and grebes



From: Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com


Along with the Eocene penguin paper, here's another recent paper that
may be interest:



Gerald Mayr (2013)
The Eocene Juncitarsus – its phylogenetic position and significance
for the evolution and higher-level affinities of flamingos and grebes.
Comptes Rendus Palevol (advance online publication)
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.crpv.2013.07.005
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631068313001115


The Early Eocene Juncitarsus was described as one of the earliest
fossil flamingos, and played a critical role in the hypothesis of a
charadriiform origin of Phoenicopteriformes. It has been noted that
phoenicopteriform affinities of Juncitarsus conflict with the recently
proposed sister group relationship between flamingos and the
morphologically very divergent grebes (Podicipediformes), but a
detailed assessment of the evolutionary significance of Juncitarsus in
light of this new hypothesis has not yet been performed. Here, the
affinities of Juncitarsus are reviewed, and its position as sister
group of the clade (Phoenicopteriformes + Podicipediformes) is
affirmed. The osteology of Juncitarsus suggests that swimming
adaptations evolved in the stem lineage of this latter clade after the
divergence of Juncitarsus. Charadriiformes remain among the candidate
taxa for the closest extant relatives of flamingos and grebes, but
more data are needed for well-supported phylogenetic hypotheses.