Found in the much-debated Hornerstown Formation which straddles the Cretaceous Paleogene boundary 66 million years ago, this animal was apparently closely related to the ancestor of some modern birds, such as Procellariiformes and / or " Pelecaniformes ".
32.
Historically these birds were placed at different parts of the tree, with tropicbirds in Pelecaniformes and the kagu and sunbittern in Gruiformes, though in the last decade various genetic analysis had found in the almost obsolete clade Metaves of uncertain placement within that group.
33.
Fregatidae ( frigatebirds ), Sulidae ( gannets and boobies ), Phalacrocoracidae ( cormorants and shags ), Anhingidae ( darters ) and the Phaethontidae ( tropicbirds ) were traditionally placed in the Pelecaniformes, but molecular and morphological studies indicate they are not such close relatives.
34.
As regards " Pelecaniformes ", the analysis does not recover the correct phylogeny and does not include the shoebill ( " Balaeniceps rex ", a " missing link " between pelicans and storks ) either; clearly, the adaptive radiation of the pelican-stork lineage is misleading the analysis here.
35.
As their relationships are still unresolved between Galloanserae and " higher waterbirds ", the pseudotooth birds are here placed in the distinct order "'Odontopterygiformes "'as a compromise, rather than in a pelecaniform / ciconiiform or anseriform suborder Odontopterygia or even a family of the Anseriformes, Ciconiiformes or Pelecaniformes.
36.
As a zoology lecturer, he amused and inspired thousands of Aberdeen University students over many years with his'skypointing'and'beak fencing'. " He was the author of an authoritative 1, 000-page monograph on boobies and gannets, including a volume on " Pelecaniformes " and a more general volume on seabird biology and ecology.
37.
In 1874, English zoologist Alfred Henry Garrod published a study where he had examined various groups of birds and recorded which muscles of a selected group of five { { efn | 1 = ambiens, fermorocaudal, accessory femorocaudal, semitendinosus, and accessory tendinosus Urless N . Lanham observed in 1947 that frigatebirds bore some skeletal characteristics more in common with Procellariiformes than Pelecaniformes, though concluded they still belonged in the latter group ( as suborder Fregatae ), albeit as an early offshoot.
