Asteriornis is anchored by CT-imaged holotype NHMM 2013 008 from a tightly constrained latest Maastrichtian horizon in Belgium; the occurrence is not a global crown-bird FAD and its crown placement remains analysis-dependent.
claim:taxon:asteriornisAsteriornis
A latest Maastrichtian bird represented by CT-imaged holotype NHMM 2013 008; the original analyses place it near crown Galloanserae but disagree on its exact branch, so the profile does not use it as a universal crown-bird first appearance.
Represented range66.8–66.7 Ma
Content packagecrocodylomorphs-birds
PBDBtxn:413463
Evidence boundary
Automated checks cover structure, identifiers, translations and links only; maintainer and external expert review are not complete.
Claim ledger
Field et al. named Asteriornis maastrichtensis from holotype NHMM 2013 008; parsimony placed it as sister to crown Galloanserae whereas tip-dated Bayesian analysis placed it as the stemward-most Pangalliformes member, so exact crown position remains method-dependent.
claim:taxon:asteriornis:taxonomyNHMM 2013 008 comes from the Maastricht Formation at the CBR-Romontbos quarry in Belgium; its Northern Hemisphere occurrence challenges a Gondwanan-origin hypothesis in the cited analysis but does not identify the geographic origin of crown birds.
claim:taxon:asteriornis:biogeographyNHMM 2013 008 includes a nearly complete, three-dimensionally preserved skull and associated postcranial elements and exhibits a combination of galliform-like and anseriform-like cranial features in the authors' comparison.
claim:taxon:asteriornis:morphologyThe cited study estimates a mean body mass of 394 g and proposes only a possible littoral ecology from small size and depositional context; it does not resolve species-specific diet, locomotor performance or a feeding guild.
claim:taxon:asteriornis:ecologyKnown limits
- A missing branch or fossil occurrence does not imply biological absence. Internal nodes are not calibrated divergence estimates.
References
- Late Cretaceous neornithine from Europe illuminates the origins of crown birdsField, D.J.; Benito, J.; Chen, A.; Jagt, J.W.M.; Ksepka, D.T. · 2020 · DOI 10.1038/s41586-020-2096-0
- Open Tree of Life web servicesOpenTreeOfLife Project
- The Paleobiology Database application programming interfacePeters, S.E.; McClennen, M. · 2016 · DOI 10.1017/pab.2015.39
- Denormalized occurrence and taxon tables of the Paleobiology DatabaseThe Paleobiology Database Community; Kocsis, Á.T. · 2026 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21620933