The mammals, inconspicuous during the dinosaur period, saw an increase in their size and number of species after the extinction of these giants sixty-five million years ago. This was the beginning of the Age of Mammals. But it was only at the beginning of the Eocene fifty-five million years ago during an extremely fast and intense global warming called PETM (Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum) when their diversity exploded. New groups then suddenly appeared on the three northern continents via intercontinental land bridges across which they made important dispersals. These new groups, called “modern mammals”, consist of rodents, lagomorphs, perissodactyls, artiodactyls, cetaceans, primates, carnivorans and bats. Although these eight groups represent 83 % of the extant mammal species diversity, their ancestors are still unknown. A short overview of the knowledge and recent progress on this research is here presented on the basis of Belgian studies and expeditions, especially in India and China.
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We describe a new avian species, Qianshanornis rapax, gen. et sp. nov., from the middle Paleocene Wanghudun Formation of the Qianshan Basin in Anhui Province, China. The holotype consists of an incomplete articulated foot and a few associated bones, mainly of the leg, wing, and pectoral girdle. Qianshanornis rapax is characterized by a derived foot morphology and may have had a hyperextendible second toe, which has so far only been reported for some Mesozoic taxa. The new species is markedly different from all other known Cenozoic birds and is here classified in the new taxonQianshanornithidae. The leg bones, especially the distal end of the tibiotarsus, most closely resemble those of Strigogyps (Ameghinornithidae) from the Eocene, and possibly Oligocene, of Europe, but unlike the latter, the much smaller Q. rapax appears to have had well-developed flight capabilities.
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