title: A Large Ornithurine Bird (Tingmiatornis arctica) from the Turonian High Arctic: Climatic and Evolutionary Implications.
abstract: Bird fossils from Turonian (ca. 90 Ma) sediments of Axel Heiberg Island (High Canadian Arctic) are among the earliest North American records. The morphology of a large well-preserved humerus supports identification of a new volant, possibly diving, ornithurine species (Tingmiatornis arctica). The new bird fossils are part of a freshwater vertebrate fossil assemblage that documents a period of extreme climatic warmth without seasonal ice, with minimum mean annual temperatures of 14 °C. The extreme warmth allowed species expansion and establishment of an ecosystem more easily able to support large birds, especially in fresh water bodies such as those present in the Turonian High Arctic. Review of the high latitude distribution of Northern Hemisphere Mesozoic birds shows only ornithurine birds are known to have occupied these regions. We propose physiological differences in ornithurines such as growth rate may explain their latitudinal distribution especially as temperatures decline later in the Cretaceous. Distribution and physiology merit consideration as factors in their preferential survival of parts of one ornithurine lineage, Aves, through the K/Pg boundary.
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth &Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 14627, USA.
authors.forename: Richard K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Bono
authors.affiliation: Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Clarke
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth &Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 14627, USA.|Department of Physics &Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, 14627, USA.
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Tarduno
authors.affiliation: Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, Box 7500, Drumheller, Alberta, T0J 0Y0, Canada.
authors.forename: Donald
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brinkman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001110:Arctic Regions; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001717:Birds / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D002170:Canada; D005580:Fossils; D014329:Tropical Climate