Abstract
With more than 9000 extant species, birds are the most species-rich group of land vertebrates, rivaled only by squamates (snakes, lizards, and allies). As seed dispersers, flower pollinators, predators, prey, and through numerous other interactions they play an important ecological role in today’s world. Even though a picture of past ecosystems is therefore likely to be incomplete without consideration of their avifaunas, Cenozoic fossil birds are still significantly underrepresented in many treatises of vertebrate paleontology, which is particularly true for Paleogene taxa. This book sets fossil taxa in an evolutionary context and addresses the relevance of some of these as “evolutionary mosaics,” which complement phylogenetic insights gained from analyses of molecular data. As such, it may not only be consulted by readers expecting a detailed review of the early fossil record of Neornithes but also by those with a general interest in the evolutionary history of modern birds.
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Mayr, G. (2022). Introduction. In: Paleogene Fossil Birds. Fascinating Life Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87645-6_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87645-6_1
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