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Cimoliornis

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Cimoliornis is a pterosaur genus containing the single species Cimoliornis diomedeus, meaning "long-winged bird of the chalk". It is known from a partial metacarpal (lower wing bone) found in late Cretaceous period English Chalk Formation of the UK.

Wikidata facts

Parent taxon
Ornithocheiroidea
Image
Cimoliornis diomedeus.jpg
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taxon synonym
Ornithocheirus
taxon synonym of
Ornithocheirus
taxon rank
genus
taxon name
Cimoliornis
Commons category
Cimoliornis

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Cimoliornis is a pterosaur genus containing the single species Cimoliornis diomedeus, meaning "long-winged bird of the chalk". It is known from a partial metacarpal (lower wing bone) found in late Cretaceous period English Chalk Formation of the UK.

The discovery of Cimoliornis remains was first announced in 1840 by Sir Richard Owen. The remains consisted of a single partial wing bone broken into three pieces, which had been acquired by William Cole, 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, and studied by Enniskillen and William Buckland, who both thought the bone came from a species of giant Cretaceous bird similar to an albatross. Owen agreed that it was a bird, and argued that it may either have been from an albatross sized bird (if it was a humerus) or a much larger bird (if it was a radius). On the latter possibility, Owen wrote that a bird of that size would have been reminiscent of the "fabulous Roc of Arabian romance."

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cimoliornis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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