Fossil Lake and the Rise of Modern Birds
Snapshots from Early Avian Evolution
Fossil Lake and the Rise of Modern Birds
Snapshots from Early Avian Evolution
Lavishly produced with color fossil photographs throughout, the first comprehensive summary of findings at one of the world’s best fossil bird localities, offering profound insight into early avian evolution after the end-of-Cretaceous extinction event.
What is today a high mountain desert in southwestern Wyoming was, 52 million years ago, a magnificent subtropical lake system. Part of the famed Green River Formation, the limestone layers of this region’s Fossil Lake provide an unparalleled record of life in the Early Eocene of North America. Evolutionary biologist Lance Grande has spent much of his career collecting and studying the beautiful and diverse assemblage of fossils from this locality. Since his 2013 book, The Lost World of Fossil Lake, researchers have uncovered many new fossil bird specimens—often stunningly preserved skeletons, sometimes even including feathers—and benefited from significant advances in our understanding of avian evolution. Their findings help to illuminate the early days of bird life on Earth.
In this volume, Grande and his collaborators—paleornithologists Daniel T. Ksepka and Gerald Mayr—explore these birds of Fossil Lake, where various researchers have formally named and described thirty avian species. The authors also present an additional twenty possible new species awaiting further study and formal review, birds that may soon be added to that list. Fossil Lake and the Rise of Modern Birds then places these avian ancestors within the global context of other fossil birds. Like Grande’s previous publications, this comprehensive work features stunning imagery, including nearly two hundred detailed fossil photographs—fifty that have never appeared elsewhere.
Whether you are an ornithologist, paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, or amateur fossil enthusiast interested in the early evolutionary diversification of modern birds, this book is a treasure.
304 pages | 138 color plates, 27 halftones | 7 x 10
Biological Sciences: Natural History, Paleobiology, Geology, and Paleontology
Reviews
Table of Contents
Preface
1. A 52-Million-Year-Old Community Exquisitely Preserved Through Time
Fossil Lake within the larger context of the Green River Formation
Reconstructing the past geological history, climate, and ecosystem
Preservation of Fossil Lake birds
Scientific benefits of large-scale collecting efforts and sample size
Current extent of the Fossil Lake deposits
Other significant Paleogene bird localities mentioned in this book
2. Bird Bones, and Using the Present to Interpret the Past
Skeletal anatomy of the chicken
Anatomy and the study of bird evolution
3. Categorizing Modern Birds into Groups That Reflect Hypothetical Relationships
Methodological philosophies, symbols, and nomenclature
The evolutionary classification of modern birds (Neornithes)
Birds known from Fossil Lake sediments
4. Palaeognathae
†Lithornithiformes (extinct relatives of ratites and tinamous)
5. Galloanseres
Galliformes (landfowl)
Anseriformes (waterfowl)
†Gastornithiformes (extinct flightless galloanserine order)
6. Mirandornithes
Phoenicopteriformes (flamingos)
7. Columbaves
Musophagiformes (turacos)—Opisthocomiformes (hoatzins)
8. Cursorimorphae
Gruiformes (cranes, rails, and allies)
Possible Charadriiformes (shorebirds and allies)
9. Strisores
Apodiformes (swifts and allies)
Possible Podargiformes (frogmouths)
Steatornithiformes (oilbirds)
10. Phaethontimorphae
Possible Eurypygiformes (sunbitterns)
11. Aequornithes
Pelecaniformes (ibises, herons, pelicans, and allies)
Suliformes (frigatebirds, gannets, and allies)
Aequornithes, undetermined order
12. Afroaves
Coliiformes (mousebirds)
Leptosomiformes (courols)
Bucerotiformes (hoopoes, hornbills, and allies)
Coraciiformes (rollers and allies)
Piciformes (woodpeckers, toucans, and allies)
Afroaves, undetermined order
13. Australaves
Falconiformes (falcons)
Psittacopasseres (parrots and passerines)
Pan-Passeriformes (Passeriformes sensu lato) (perching birds and songbirds)
14. Taphonomy: Death and Preservation in the Fossil Record
Causes of death
Color variation in fossils due to the chemistry of the sediments
Articulation versus disarticulation in skeletal preservation
Gut contents (possible food items)
Predators of Fossil Lake birds
Feather and soft tissue preservation
15. Fossil Lake and the Evolution of Modern Birds
Where it all began: Mesozoic bird faunas of the world
The diversification of birds after the K-Pg global extinction event
Paleogene bird faunas of the world, and Fossil Lake’s place with them
Concluding Remarks
Acknowledgments
List of Institutional Abbreviations
References
Taxonomic Index
Subject Index