#juncitarsus

Messel lake is a legendary fossil site from the middle Eocene of Germany, about 40 million years ago. It preserves incredible fossils and a great diversity of life thanks to the lake's dark, volcanic secrets. This was also famously the setting of the first episode of the paleodocumentary series Walking With Beasts. While the episode isn't particularly accurate and actually takes place at the later part of the Paleogene greenhouse, one thing is certain. There were a lot of birds here.

Hassiavis: An insectivorous bird related to nightjars and owlet-nightjars. The fossil of this bird is so well preserved that even the pattern of the bird's wing feathers is visible.

Paraprefica: An early relative of those peculiar South American birds, the potoos. In all likelyhood, this early potoo was just as weird as modern ones.

Scaniacypselus: One of the first true swifts, and was just as incredibly adapter for a life on the wing as modern swifts and tree-swifts.

Messelirrisor: A tiny insectivorous bird that was related to hoopoes.

Selmes: This small omnivorous bird was related to modern mousebirds. And like them, it could wwist all four of its toes forwards.

Eocoracias: A relative of rollers and the dollarbird that ate insects. The coloration of this bird is fully known thanks to excellent fossil preservation.

Masillastega: The earliest known gannet known from a complete skull. This booby dove under the surface to catch fish, though it likely didn't plunge down like modern boobies.

Rhynchaeites: A widespread wader known from multiple fossil sites in Europe. It closely resembles and may have been related to modern ibises.

Messelornis: A relative of modern rails and the obscure finfoots, this was a very successful bird, with fossils found from Europe and North America.

Juncitarsus: A long legged and spear beaked bird that resembles a crane, but is actually related to grebes and flamingoes. It used it's sharp beak to spear fish.

Fossil Novembirb: Day 11

Dawn in Messel

1. Eocoracias brachyptera

2. Masillastega rectirostris

By Jack Wood on @thewoodparable

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Name: Juncitarsus gracillimus, J. merkeli

Status: Extinct

First Described: 1980

Described By: Olson & Feduccia 

Classification: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Neovaes, Aequorlitornithes, Mirandornithes

Juncitarsus is a well known bird from the Bridger Formation of Wyoming and the Messel Pit of Germany, living between 49 and 46 million years ago, in the Ypresian to Lutetian ages of the Eocene to the Paleogene. A wading bird, Juncitarsus was originally thought to be a primitive flamingo - with a long neck, very long skinny legs, and a long beak good for feeding in the water. However, despite its extreme similarities to modern flamingos, it might not be a flamingo at all - but rather, an early member of the group containing both flamingos and their closest relatives, the grebes. Given its very straight beak, it’s definitely not like a modern flamingo - with their downturned beaks - and it’s different from the needle-like beaks of modern grebes as well. In addition, Juncitarsus doesn’t have the derived characteristics shared by both grebes and flamingos in its skeleton, making it unlikely to be more closely related to one or the other. So Juncitarsus is a weird evolutionary offshoot of the group, an early experiment in the wade-feeding lifestyle. 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juncitarsus