Messelasturidae

Messelasturidae is an extinct family of carnivorous birds, strongly convergent with modern hawks and falcons. Initially interpreted as stem-owls,[2] more recent studies have shown that they are actually closely related to modern parrots and are in the same order.[3][4]

Messelasturidae
Temporal range: Eocene
Eocene (possible Paleocene representative)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Family: †Messelasturidae
Mayr 2005
Genera
  • †Messelastur
  • †Tynskya


References
  1. Gerald Mayr; Sophie Hervet; Eric Buffetaut (2018). "On the diverse and widely ignored Paleocene avifauna of Menat (Puy-de-Dôme, France): new taxonomic records and unusual soft tissue preservation". Geological Magazine. in press. doi:10.1017/S0016756818000080.
  2. D. S. Peters. 1994. Messelastur gratulator n. gen. n. spec., ein Greifvogel as der Grube Messel (Aves: Accipitridae). Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 170:3-9
  3. G. Mayr. 2011. Well-preserved new skeleton of the Middle Eocene Messelastur substantiates sister group relationship between Messelasturidae and Halcyornithidae (Aves, ? Pan-Psittaciformes). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 9(1):159-171 [J. Alroy/J. Alroy]
  4. Gerald Mayr, Paleogene Fossil Birds
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