Re: Vegavis gen. nov. - new anseriform in today's Nature

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Graydon <oak@uniserve.com> wrote:

> More or less what they are now -- jungle fowl.  And even modern domestic
> chickens will eat anything, up to and including attempts on the toes of
> anyone so incautious as to wear sandals near them.
>
> Also note that it's plenty if *one* proto-chicken and *one* proto-goose
> species make it over the boundary, to explain the present observed
> diversity.

The paper concludes by saying "The Anseriformes that can be inferred as 
present by this point [Maastrichtian] are lineages that today include 
large-bodies terrestrial browsers and occasional omnivores (that is, 
screamers, Anhimidae and magpie geese, _Anseranas_) as well as the lineage 
leading to true ducks and geese."

To this we can add the first galliforms, the first paleognaths and (perhaps) 
the first dromornithids, based on phylogenetic divergence; and perhaps loons 
(based on _Neogaeornis_ and _Polarornis_).  Interestingly, in today's world 
all of these groups (galloanserine birds, loons, paleognaths) are not among 
the most accomplished or powerful fliers - some don't fly at all.  Maybe 
(and this is a big MAYBE) it was advantageous to be able to fly (by allowing 
an expanded area for scavenging or foraging), but having a metabolism that 
was adapted for the demands of high-speed flight imposed a prohibitively 
high energy cost on these birds.