Cenozoic dino

[evelyn sobielski <koreke77@yahoo.de>]

Hi, 

browsing through Mayr's new "Paleogene Fossil Birds", I came across:

Qinornis paleocenica Xue, 1995 - juvenile(?), incomplete metatarsal fusion 
(different from at least crown Neornithes). Mayr indicates that the assumption 
that it lies outside crown Neornithes[*] is in need of falsification.

Does any listmember have more info on this? (I have the original description, 
but as a bad scan where details of the fossils are impossible to discern)


Regards,

Eike


[*] There were probably no or very few stem Neornithes (lineages originating 
before the paleognath-neognath split) left at the end of the Mesozoic. Off the 
top of my head, even their Maastrichtian record is Neognathae, and indeed seems 
to be mostly Neoaves and 2-3 Galloanserae.