#morsoravis

The Fur formation of Denmark preserves an interesting glimpse into the world of the Early Eocene Epoch, about 50 million years ago. Back then, Northern Europe was very warm thanks to global warming linked to the PETM, with subtropical redwood forest growing on the shore of a warm sea. And birds thrived on these tropical Nordic shores.

Eocypselus: An early relative of swifts and nighthawks with long legs and an insectivorous diet.

Pellornis: A tiny wading bird that was one of the earliest known gruiforms, making it an early relative of rails and cranes.

Morsoravis: A peculiar bird that may have been part of a radiation of stem-passerines and stem-parrots.

Septencoracias: An early relative of modern rollers, beautiful hawking birds that catch large insects and small vertebrates with their beak.

Passerines represent 60% of modern bird diversity today, but we haven't found any fossils of them from the Eocene. Instead, their close relatives took up many of the niches that they would fill in the future. Unfortunately, by the middle Miocene, most of these stem-passerines had become extinct.