Early-middle Eocene birds from the Lillebaelt Clay Formation of Denmark

TY - ABST

T1 - Early-middle Eocene birds from the Lillebaelt Clay Formation of Denmark

AU - Lindow, Bent Erik Kramer

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - The marine Lillebaelt Clay Formation of central Denmark is of early-middle Eocene age (late Ypresian - middle Lutetian; microfossil zones NP 13-NP 15). Over 20 bird fossils collected by amateur palaeontologists have been acquired through the Danish national ‘Danekrae' fossil treasure trove legislation. The fossils are preserved in clay ironstone concretions and almost two-thirds are isolated skulls preserved three-dimensionally. Bird fossils of this age and degree of preservation are rare in an international context. The fossils indicate a very diverse assemblage consisting of both marine and terrestrial forms. These include at least one pelagornithid or 'pseudo-toothed bird'; two or three taxa with charadriiform affinities (shorebirds and allies); a massive, narrow-beaked psittaciform (parrots and allies); a large rallid (rail) and one lithornithid (extinct, volant palaeognaths). The Lillebaelt Clay Formation deposits derive from just after the Early Eocene Climate Optimum, a period of global elevated temperatures resulting from rapid greenhouse warming. Comparison between this bird assemblage and the recently revised assemblage from the older (earliest Ypresian) Fur Formation of Denmark, allows investigation of the effects of prehistoric greenhouse warming on a single zoological group (birds) within a delimited biogeographic area.

AB - The marine Lillebaelt Clay Formation of central Denmark is of early-middle Eocene age (late Ypresian - middle Lutetian; microfossil zones NP 13-NP 15). Over 20 bird fossils collected by amateur palaeontologists have been acquired through the Danish national ‘Danekrae' fossil treasure trove legislation. The fossils are preserved in clay ironstone concretions and almost two-thirds are isolated skulls preserved three-dimensionally. Bird fossils of this age and degree of preservation are rare in an international context. The fossils indicate a very diverse assemblage consisting of both marine and terrestrial forms. These include at least one pelagornithid or 'pseudo-toothed bird'; two or three taxa with charadriiform affinities (shorebirds and allies); a massive, narrow-beaked psittaciform (parrots and allies); a large rallid (rail) and one lithornithid (extinct, volant palaeognaths). The Lillebaelt Clay Formation deposits derive from just after the Early Eocene Climate Optimum, a period of global elevated temperatures resulting from rapid greenhouse warming. Comparison between this bird assemblage and the recently revised assemblage from the older (earliest Ypresian) Fur Formation of Denmark, allows investigation of the effects of prehistoric greenhouse warming on a single zoological group (birds) within a delimited biogeographic area.

M3 - Conference abstract in journal

SN - 0272-4634

VL - 29

SP - 135A

JO - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

JF - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

IS - 3 (supp.)

T2 - 69th Annual Meeting Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Y2 - 23 September 2009 through 26 September 2009

ER -