Geological Magazine
- Geological Magazine / Volume 147 / Issue 03 / May 2010, pp 469-472
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0016756810000129 (About DOI), Published online: 08 February 2010
Rapid Communication
A basal bird from the Campanian (Late Cretaceous) of Dinosaur Provincial Park (Alberta, Canada)
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Abstract
A fragmentary bone from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian) of Dinosaur Provincial Park (Alberta, Canada), originally described as a pterosaur tibiotarsus, is reinterpreted as the distal end of the tibiotarsus of a basal bird, probably an enantiornithine, on the basis of several distinctive characters. It is the first report of such a bird from the Dinosaur Park Formation and shows that this group was present, together with various more derived ornithurines, in the relatively high-latitude environments of Late Cretaceous western Canada.
(Received October 29 2009)
(Accepted January 18 2010)
(Online publication February 08 2010)
Keywords:Cretaceous; Campanian; Alberta; Canada; Aves; Enantiornithes
Correspondence:
c1 Author for correspondence: eric.buffetaut@sfr.fr
