10.6084/m9.figshare.5281297.v1 Tomonori Tanaka Tomonori Tanaka Yoshitsugu Kobayashi Yoshitsugu Kobayashi Ken'ichi Kurihara Ken'ichi Kurihara Anthony R. Fiorillo Anthony R. Fiorillo Manabu Kano Manabu Kano The oldest Asian hesperornithiform from the Upper Cretaceous of Japan, and the phylogenetic reassessment of Hesperornithiformes Taylor & Francis Group 2017 Hesperornithiformes diving birds fossil birds Late Cretaceous new species 2017-08-07 09:39:24 Dataset https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/dataset/The_oldest_Asian_hesperornithiform_from_the_Upper_Cretaceous_of_Japan_and_the_phylogenetic_reassessment_of_Hesperornithiformes/5281297 <p>Asian hesperornithiforms are extremely rare in contrast to the much more abundant record from North America. In Asia, these fossil birds are only known from fragmentary materials from Mongolia. Here we describe the skeletal remains of a new hesperornithiform <i>Chupkaornis keraorum</i> gen. et sp. nov. from the Upper Cretaceous Kashima Formation (Coniacian to Santonian) of the Yezo Group in Mikasa City, Hokkaido, Japan. This is the best-preserved hesperornithiform material from Asia and it is the first report of hesperornithiforms from the eastern margin of the Eurasian continent. <i>Chupkaornis</i> has a unique combination of characters: finger-like projected tibiofibular crest of femur, deep, emarginated lateral excavation with a sharply defined edge of the ventral margin of the thoracic vertebrae, and the heterocoelous articular surface of the thoracic vertebrae. Our new phylogenetic analysis revises the phylogenetic relationships of Hesperornithiformes. In contrast to previous studies, <i>Enaliornis</i> is assigned as the most basal taxon and <i>Baptornis</i> is positioned as more derived than <i>Brodavis</i>. <i>Chupkaornis</i> is a sister taxon to the clade of <i>Brodavis</i> and higher taxa. <i>Parahesperornis</i> and <i>Hesperornis</i> are positioned within Hesperornithidae, the derived Hesperornithiformes. Many of the skeletal character changes are concentrated at the base of Hesperornithidae (<i>Parahesperornis</i> and more derived taxa), and involve the modification of the pelvic girdle and hind limb morphology (e.g. dorsal directed antitrochanter of pelvis, short and sprawled femur, including probable lobe-toed feet suggested by the specialized distal articular surface of first digit of fourth toe, and predominantly robust digit IV phalanges). These skeletal modifications are likely adaptations for foot-propelled diving behaviour.</p> <p><a href="http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FB783237-E565-4B74-9386-EADF8E12DFD4" target="_blank">http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:FB783237-E565-4B74-9386-EADF8E12DFD4</a></p>