Plotopteridae

Copepteryx, graphic reconstruction

• USA (California, Oregon, Washington)
• Japan

The Plotopteridae are an extinct family flightless birds that lived on the coasts of the northern Pacific from the middle Eocene to early Miocene. They took in the northern Pacific Ocean, the ecological niche of the living only in the southern oceans penguins and had convergent developed them.

Features

The birds were similar to the recent snake -necked birds and how these are to Ruderfüßern. They had, however, much like penguins or the extinct Great Auk, short wings, which were probably like fins used for propulsion when swimming. My bill was typical of Pelecaniformes, the feet were similar to those of the darters. The Plotopteridae included the largest known diving birds; a kind of measure from beak to tail 1.8 meters.

Discovery history

The family was described in 1969 by Hildegarde Howard after the discovery of an upper portion of a left coracoid in the San Joaquin Valley in California. The fossil was described as Polopterum joaquinensis and dates from the early Miocene. Exact knowledge of the anatomy of the birds they won by new finds from the late Oligocene and early Miocene of Japan and Washington.

Way of life

The Plotopteridae probably lived too far from the coast to the open ocean. The fossil remains of Phocavis maritimus, the oldest type, were found in Oregon in sediments that were deposited in 500 to 1000 meters depth. They died together with large penguin species from the end of the early Miocene. The reason the competition is suspected with the newly evolved seals and porpoises. Both taxa made ​​at this time by a fast adaptive radiation.

Genera

• Copepteryx
• Phocavis
• Plotopterum
• Tonsala

Swell

• Alan Feduccia: The Origin and Evolution of the Birds. 2nd edition, Yale University Press, New Haven / London, 1999, ISBN 0300078617