Discovery of a Cretaceous Bird, Apparently Ancestral to the Orders Coraciiformes and Piciformes (Aves: Carinatae)

Abstract

<i>Alexornis antecedens</i>, new genus and species, is described from the Bocana Roja Formation, Upper Cretaceous (Campanian age), near El Rosario, Baja California, Mexico. The humerus, ulna, scapula, coracoid, femur, and tibiotarsus are represented. The fossil is referred to a new family, Alexornithidae, and a new order, Alexornithiformes, thought to be ancestral to the Tertiary and Recent orders Coraciiformes and Piciformes. Since <i>Caenagnathus collinsi</i> Sternberg and <i>C. sternbergi</i> Cracraft are reptiles, and <i>Gobipteryx minuta</i> Elzanowski appears to be reptilian also, <i>Alexornis</i> is the only certain land bird known from the Cretaceous.