“Enantiornithines were good enough to survive and dominate in the Cretaceous but maybe not good enough to make it through the mass extinction,” Dr. O’Connor said."
I'm disappointed with this. Wouldn't "not lucky enough" be a better phrasing?
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@Stan Frymann
Exactly. Surviving a mass extinction is a crapshoot. It generally has nothing to do with an adaptive trait that aids survival and reproductive success, but is contingent on luck.
Enantiornithines were more successful during the Cretaceous and had a much wider cosmopolitan distribution, which should have given it an advantage in surviving a mass extinction, because a wider distribution usually suggests larger populations and more species that find refugia from the effects of the asteroid strike.
In contrast, Neornithes (the lineage that led to all modern birds) had a west Gondwanaland origin (South America, Australia, West Antarctica) and distribution, perhaps shielding the ancestors of modern birds from the most catastrophic effects of the end Cretaceous mass extinction (in other words, luck. Being in the right place at the right time.).
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@Stan Frymann "not sufficiently well adapted" would be better yet.
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You used the word “perhaps.” Dr. O’Connor used the word “maybe.” That about settles it. Luck favors the adaptively evolved.
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Fascinating. It’s a shame more people don’t take interest in these stories, I find them far more wondrous than whatever Trump tweeted last.
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Agree!!
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It's almost as if the fossil is flipping us off.
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Correction, giving us the bird.
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Taxonomy alert: I believe Enantiornithes is an order of birds, not a family. Family names end in “idae”, while orders typically end in “ithes”. Or at least that’s what this amateur birder thinks.
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@Robert Lockett
Instead of giving Enantiornithes a Linnaean taxonomic rank (e.g., order), we can say it is a separate lineage from Neornithes, the clade that contains all modern birds.
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Very interesting stuff but:
1. I'm surprised that a species can be described when only a single sample of a particular feature has been found; couldn't there be other explanations for that long toe, such as an abnormality.
2. The issue of collection and abuse is a subject worthy of a much more detailed look, rather than having the issue smushed into the back end of an also overly brief look at evolution, etc.
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It seems to me that getting precious finds such as this to the appropriate scientific authority might be work the risk of having to do business with a rogue operator. The alternative is what, this piece ending up with a private collector and never being submitted for scientific examination? The seller will still get the high price that is demanded.
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