Anatalavis is genus of prehistoric birds related to ducks and geese, perhaps to the magpie-goose (Anseranas semipalmata) in particular. Alternatively, it might have been a more basal lineage of Anserimorphae distinct from the living waterfowl, similar or even related to the roughly contemporary Conflicto antarcticus from the Danian of Antarctica.
Anatalavis is genus of prehistoric birds related to ducks and geese, perhaps to the magpie-goose (Anseranas semipalmata) in particular. Alternatively, it might have been a more basal lineage of Anserimorphae distinct from the living waterfowl, similar or even related to the roughly contemporary Conflicto antarcticus from the Danian of Antarctica.
==Species== The type species Anatalavis rex is known from Hornerstown, New Jersey, and its remains were collected by J.G.Meirs in 1869 and W.Ross in 1878. They are probably from the Hornerstown Formation (Late Cretaceous or Early Paleocene, some 66 million years ago) – usually, they are assumed to be from the lower Maastrichtian layer of the Hornerstown Formation, but they might be younger and postdate the Mesozoic, or even from the slightly older Navesink Formation, as these deposits are reworked and locally mixed across the K-Pg boundary, and no exact locality data was recorded for the A. rex fossils. The remains were recognized as a new species by Robert Wilson Shufeldt in the early 20th century already, but for a long time they remained in the putative shorebird genus Telmatornis. As this species was larger than its supposed congeners T. priscus and T. affinis (which are today considered a single species), Shufeldt gave it the species name rex, Latin for "king". Its affinity to waterfowl was only recognized in 1987 by Storrs L. Olson and David C. Parris, who consequently established the genus Anatalavis, meaning "duck-winged bird", from Latin anas "duck", ala "wing" and avis "bird". A. rex is only known from two humeri (holotype YPM 902 of a right wing, and paratype YPM 948 of a left wing) which are distinct and characteristic even though they lack the proximal end. They are not particularly large, but quite stout, and the living bird was probably similar to an average-sized dabbling duck of genus Anas in bulk. Notably, the shaft of the humerus has a pronounced curve like in living ducks; in the original humerus fossils of Telmatornis little of the shaft was preserved, but eventually a more complete specimen was discovered, and its straight shaft is quite unlike that of Anatalavis.
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