Vegaviidae and a Review of Bird Evolution

[ZoPteryx]

Some interesting things happening in the world of bird evolution.

The family Vegaviidae is established for a group of Southern Hemisphere diving birds related to modern waterfowl.  The well known Vegavis (Late Cretaceous) is the group's namesake, and it also includes Australornis (Paleogene) and Polarornis (Late Cretaceous), species formerly regarded as relatives of loons.  This is also the only family of birds known to have survived through the K/Pg boundary.

Pay-walled Paper:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00114-017-1508-y



Also, an interesting review on the modern state of avian evolution, available as a free pdf:
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-319-44153-5_1.pdf

[Ravonium]

I've always found the existence of Vegavis and its relatives interesting, and I'm glad they've finally been grouped together into a family.

[Loon]

The well known Vegavis (Late Cretaceous) is the group's namesake, and it also includes Australornis (Paleogene) and Polarornis (Late Cretaceous), species formerly regarded as relatives of loons.

It's about time, those guys don't even look like me.

[Halichoeres]

These guys are getting a lot of press lately:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667117305232