Clymenoptilon Temporal range:
| |
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![]() | |
Skull | |
Scientific classification
![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Phaethontiformes |
Genus: | †
Clymenoptilon Mayr et al, 2023 |
Species: | †C. novaezealandicum
|
Binomial name | |
†Clymenoptilon novaezealandicum
Mayr et al, 2023
|
Clymenoptilon is an extinct genus of phaethontiform bird related to modern tropicbirds. It contains a single species, C. novaezealandicum from the Paleocene-aged Waipara Greensand of New Zealand. Its name references Clymene, the mother of Phaethon in Greek mythology. [1] [2] [3]
It is known from a partial skeleton with a nearly complete skull. It is the earliest known phaethontiform from the Southern Hemisphere (living only a few million years after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event), suggesting that the group may have originated in Zealandia. It lived alongside the early pseudotooth bird Protodontopteryx, also one of the oldest representatives of its order. [1] [3]
Clymenoptilon Temporal range:
| |
---|---|
![]() | |
Skull | |
Scientific classification
![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Phaethontiformes |
Genus: | †
Clymenoptilon Mayr et al, 2023 |
Species: | †C. novaezealandicum
|
Binomial name | |
†Clymenoptilon novaezealandicum
Mayr et al, 2023
|
Clymenoptilon is an extinct genus of phaethontiform bird related to modern tropicbirds. It contains a single species, C. novaezealandicum from the Paleocene-aged Waipara Greensand of New Zealand. Its name references Clymene, the mother of Phaethon in Greek mythology. [1] [2] [3]
It is known from a partial skeleton with a nearly complete skull. It is the earliest known phaethontiform from the Southern Hemisphere (living only a few million years after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event), suggesting that the group may have originated in Zealandia. It lived alongside the early pseudotooth bird Protodontopteryx, also one of the oldest representatives of its order. [1] [3]