Clymenoptilon

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Clymenoptilon
Temporal range: 62–61 Ma
File:Clymenoptilon.jpg
Skull
Scientific classification Edit this classification
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]

References

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