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Tim Williams wrote- "Mayr (2016) notes that the Messel ecosystem (Eocene) is remarkable for the large and diverse number of flightless birds (_Palaeotis_, _Gastornis_, _Strigogyps_, _Dynamopterus_). He attributes this to the absence of large mammalian carnivores - not to the absence of predators per se. ... But there is also the possibility that competition with new large mammalian herbivores (conspicuously absent from Messel) also played a part." Isn't this likely a depositional issue, much like the Jehol fauna? Messel was continental, right? It's not like continental faunas exist without large mammalian taxa today- something's going to move in. Mickey Mortimer |