The Most Important Paper in the History of the Universe

["Jerry D. Harris" <jharris@dixie.edu>]

...or, OK, so it's not.  Just cool.

Lockley, M.G., Li, R., Harris, J.D., Matsukawa, M., and Liu, M. 2007. 
Earliest zygodactyl bird feet: evidence from Early Cretaceous 
roadrunner-like tracks. Naturwissenschaften Online First. doi: 
10.1007/s00114-007-0239-x.

ABSTRACT: Fossil footprints are important in understanding Cretaceous avian 
diversity because they constitute evidence of paleodiversity and 
paleoecology that is not always apparent from skeletal remains. Early 
Cretaceous bird tracks have demonstrated the existence of wading birds in 
East Asia, but some pedal morphotypes, such as zygodactyly, common in modern 
and earlier Cenozoic birds (Neornithes) were unknown in the Cretaceous. We, 
herein, discuss the implications of a recently reported, Early Cretaceous 
(120-110 million years old) trackway of a large, zygodactyl bird from China 
that predates skeletal evidence of this foot morphology by at least 50 
million years and includes the only known fossil zygodactyl footprints. The 
tracks demonstrate the existence of a Cretaceous bird not currently 
represented in the body fossil record that occupied a roadrunner 
(Geococcyx)-like niche, indicating a previously unknown degree of Cretaceous 
avian morphological and behavioral diversity that presaged later Cenozoic 
patterns.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jerry D. Harris
Director of Paleontology
Dixie State College
Science Building
225 South 700 East
St. George, UT  84770   USA
Phone: (435) 652-7758
Fax: (435) 656-4022
E-mail: jharris@dixie.edu
and     dinogami@gmail.com
http://cactus.dixie.edu/jharris/

"Trying to estimate the divergence times
of fungal, algal or prokaryotic groups on
the basis of a partial reptilian fossil and
protein sequences from mice and humans
is like trying to decipher Demotic Egyptian with
the help of an odometer and the Oxford
English Dictionary."
              -- D. Graur & W. Martin (_Trends
                  in Genetics_ 20[2], 2004)