Little bird lost

[Christopher Taylor <ck.taylor@auckland.ac.nz>]

>From today's Science:

    Mayr, G. 2004. Old World fossil record of modern-type hummingbirds.
Science 304 (5672): 861-864.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/304/5672/861 (but only with a
Science subscription, sorry :( )

    "I report on tiny skeletons of stem-group hummingbirds [_Eurotrochilus
inexpectatus_ gen. et sp. nov., sister to crown Trochilidae] from the early
Oligocene of Germany that are of essentially modern appearance and exhibit
morphological specializations toward nectarivory and hovering flight. These
are the oldest fossils of modern-type hummingbirds, which had not previously
been reported from the Old World. The findings demonstrate that early
hummingbird evolution was not restricted to the New World. They further
suggest that bird­flower coevolution dates back to the early Oligocene and
open another view on the origin of ornithophily in Old World plants."

    Not as stunning as some of the other Messel birds (no feathers
preseerved), but between two specimens, it looks to be most of the skeleton
represented. This is the latest of a series of Old World apodiforms
progressively closer to Trochilidae.
    The ornithophily bit mentioned at the end of the abstract is restricted
to the last paragraph of the paper, in which Mayr mentions some Old World
plants that appear to show adaptations to avian pollinators in areas where
there are none. Mayr suggests the possibility that this is a relict from
when they were bird-pollinated. I'm not convinced - the Oligocene was a long
time ago to be preserving a relict morphology from (though admittedly, the
poor small bird fossil record probably doesn't preclude hummingbirds
surviving in Europe until much more recently). Also, doesn't the Old World
have large hovering insect pollinators such as sphinx moths that might be a
better explanation for the flowers?

    Another question - IIRC, there are a number of New World bird families
with earlier European members than American - or at least, there were. Are
Opisthocomidae and Cathartidae still held to have European ancestries? Or is
this possibly just a side effect of the European fossil record being better
known than the South American? In the news item alongside the hummingbird
article, they imply that, although all the known stem trochilids are Old
World, we can't say for sure that Trochilidae are Old World in origin, as
this may just be Messel-induced bias.

    Cheers,

        Christopher Taylor