Re: Species-level phylogeny of Cretaceous Hesperornithiformes

[Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>]

Note that the pdf is now free:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14772019.2015.1036141


Also, a news release:

http://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/news/press-release/go-fish-ancient-birds-evolved-specialist-diving-adaptations#.VV6vevlVhHy

On Thu, May 21, 2015 at 7:21 AM, Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ben Creisler
> bcreisler@gmail.com
>
>
> A new online paper:
>
> Alyssa Bell & Luis M. Chiappe (2015)
> A species-level phylogeny of the Cretaceous Hesperornithiformes (Aves:
> Ornithuromorpha): implications for body size evolution amongst the
> earliest diving birds.
> Journal of Systematic Palaeontology (advance online publication)
> DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2015.1036141
> http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14772019.2015.1036141#.VV3orflVhHw
>
>
> Despite extensive discoveries across the globe over the past two
> centuries, little phylogenetic work has been done on the
> Hesperornithiformes. Spanning the late Early to Late Cretaceous,
> hesperornithiforms are one of the most diverse groups of Mesozoic
> birds in terms of both their geographical distribution and the wide
> differences in body size and diving specializations. This study
> presents the first phylogenetic analysis of the Hesperornithiformes
> that includes a majority of the described taxa, enabling the first
> detailed look at evolutionary relationships within the clade. The
> results of this study support the monophyly of the
> Hesperornithiformes, which is recovered as the sister clade to the
> avian crown group, Neornithes. Within the Hesperornithiformes, the
> Brodavidae and Hesperornithidae are monophyletic while the
> Baptornithidae are polyphyletic. Little evidence of species-level
> taxonomic differentiation is found within Hesperornis, with many
> species indistinguishable from Hesperornis regalis. Evolution within
> the Hesperornithiformes provides a fascinating example of progressive
> development of specialized diving adaptations in birds. The
> acquisition of these diving specializations appears to be uncorrelated
> to the independent evolution of multiple large increases in body size.