Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:22:18.209Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

New evidence of a giant bird from the Late Cretaceous of France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2012

ERIC BUFFETAUT  and
DELPHINE ANGST
ERIC BUFFETAUT*
Affiliation:
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 8538, Laboratoire de Géologie de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
DELPHINE ANGST
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5276, 2 rue Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
*
†Author for correspondence: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A large heterocoelous cervical vertebra from the Late Cretaceous of Cruzy (Hérault, southern France) is described and referred to the giant bird Gargantuavis philoinos Buffetaut & Le Loeuff, 1998, confirming its avian nature. Gargantuavis appears to have been a long-necked bird with possibly a relatively small skull. Derived features such as heterocoely suggest that Gargantuavis was an advanced ornithuromorph, close to ornithurines.

Keywords

AvesLate CretaceousFranceGargantuavisvertebra
Type
Rapid Communication
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 150 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 173 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baumel, J. J. & Witmer, L. M. 1993. Osteologia. In Handbook of Avian Anatomy: Nomina Anatomica Avium 2nd ed. (eds Baumel, J. J., Breazile, J. E., Evans, H. E. & Berge, J. C. Vanden), pp. 45–132. Cambridge, Massachussetts: Nuttall Ornithological Club.Google Scholar
Boas, J. E. V. 1929. Biologisch-anatomische Studien über den Hals der Vögel. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Skrifter, Naturvidenskabelig og Mathematisk Afdeling 9, 101–222.Google Scholar
Bonaparte, J. F. & Alvarenga, H. 1992. A new flightless landbird from the Cretaceous of Patagonia. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Science Series 36, 51–64.Google Scholar
Buffetaut, E. 2002. Giant ground birds at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary: extinction or survival? Geological Society of America Special Paper 356, 303–6.Google Scholar
Buffetaut, E. 2011 a. Giant birds from the Late Cretaceous of southern France: an update. In 8th Romanian Symposium of Paleontology, Abstract Book (ed. Csiki, Z.), pp. 13–14. Bucharest: Ars Docendi.Google Scholar
Buffetaut, E. 2011 b. Samrukia nessovi, from the Late Cretaceous of Kazakhstan: a large pterosaur, not a giant bird. Annales de Paléontologie 97, 133–8.Google Scholar
Buffetaut, E. & Le Loeuff, J. 1998. A new giant ground bird from the Upper Cretaceous of southern France. Journal of the Geological Society, London 155, 1–4.Google Scholar
Buffetaut, E. & Le Loeuff, J. 2010. Gargantuavis philoinos: giant bird or giant pterosaur? Annales de Paléontologie 96, 135–41.Google Scholar
Buffetaut, E., Le Loeuff, J., Mechin, P. & Mechin-Salessy, A. 1995. A large French Cretaceous bird. Nature 377, 110.Google Scholar
Buffetaut, E., Le Loeuff, J., Tong, H., Duffaud, S., Cavin, L., Garcia, G., Ward, D. & Association Culturelle, Archéologique et Paléontologique de Cruzy 1999. Un nouveau gisement de vertébrés du Crétacé supérieur à Cruzy (Hérault, Sud de la France). Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris 328, 203–8.Google Scholar
Bunce, M., Worthy, T. H., Phillips, M. J., Holdaway, R. N., Willersley, E., Haile, J., Shapiro, B., Scofield, R. P., Drummond, A., Kampk, P. J. J. & Cooper, A. 2009. The evolutionary history of the extinct ratite moa and New Zealand Neogene paleogeography. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 49, 20646–51.Google Scholar
Chiappe, L. M. 2002. Osteology of the flightless Patagopteryx deferrariisi from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia (Argentina). In Mesozoic Birds (eds Chiappe, L. M. & Witmer, L. M.), pp. 281–316. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, J. A. 2004. Morphology, phylogenetic taxonomy, and systematics of Ichthyornis and Apatornis (Avialae: Ornithurae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 286, 1–179.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gervais, P. 1873. Enumération de quelques ossements d'animaux vertébrés recueillis aux environs de Reims par M. Lemoine. Journal de Zoologie 2, 351–5.Google Scholar
Lemoine, V. 1878. Recherches sur les Oiseaux Fossiles des Terrains Tertiaires Inférieurs des Environs de Reims. Reims: Keller, 69 pp.Google Scholar
Makovicky, P. J. & Norell, M. A. 2004. Troodontidae. In The Dinosauria 2nd ed. (eds Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P. & Osmólska, H.), pp. 184–95. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, O. C. 1879. The vertebrae of recent birds. American Journal of Science 17, 266–9.Google Scholar
Marsh, O. C. 1880. Odontornithes: A Monograph of the Extinct Toothed Birds of North America. Washington: Government Printing Office, 201 pp.Google Scholar
Matthew, W. D. & Granger, W. 1917. The skeleton of Diatryma, a gigantic bird from the Lower Eocene of Wyoming. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 37, 307–26.Google Scholar
Mayr, G. 2009. Paleogene Fossil Birds. Berlin: Springer, 262 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mivart, St G. 1874. On the axial skeleton of the ostrich (Struthio camelus). Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 8, 385–451.Google Scholar
Mivart, St G. 1877. On the axial skeleton of the Struthionidae. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 10, 1–52.Google Scholar
Mourer-Chauviré, C., Tabuce, R., Mahboubi, M., Adaci, M. & Bensalah, M. 2011. A phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa. Naturwissenschaften 98, 815–23.Google Scholar
Murray, P. F. & Vickers-Rich, P. 2004. Magnificent Mihirungs. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 411 pp.Google Scholar
Naish, D., Dyke, G., Cau, A., Escuillié, F. & Godefroit, P. 2012. A gigantic bird from the Upper Cretaceous of Central Asia. Biology Letters 8, 97–100.Google Scholar
O'Connor, P. M. 2004. Pulmonary pneumaticity in the postcranial skeleton of extant Aves: a case study examining Anseriformes. Journal of Morphology 261,141–61.Google Scholar
O'Connor, J., Chiappe, L. M. & Bell, A. 2011. Pre-modern birds: avian divergences in the Mesozoic. In Living Dinosaurs. The Evolutionary History of Modern Birds (eds Dyke, G. & Kaiser, G.), pp. 39–114. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Pereda-Suberbiola, X. 2009. Biogeographical affinities of Late Cretaceous continental tetrapods of Europe: a review. Bulletin de la Société géologique de France 180, 57–71.Google Scholar
Sinclair, W. J. & Farr, M. S. 1932. Aves of the Santa Cruz Beds. Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896–1899 7, 157–91.Google Scholar
Walker, C. A. & Dyke, G. 2009. Enantiornithine birds from the Late Cretaceous of El Brete (Argentina). Irish Journal of Earth Sciences 27, 15–62.Google Scholar
Xu, X. & Norell, M. A. 2004. A new troodontid dinosaur from China with avian-like sleeping posture. Nature 431, 838–41.Google Scholar