Pigeons, sandgrouse, cuckoos, nightjars, rollers, bee-eaters, kingfishers and swifts in the European fossil avifauna and their osteological characteristics
Published Online: Jul 27, 2019
Page range: 132 - 165
Received: Sep 12, 2018
Accepted: Jan 10, 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/orhu-2019-0009
Keywords
© 2019 Jenő Eugen Kessler, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
In the article, the author describes the presence of fossil records of the pigeons (Ord. Columbiformes, Fam. Columbidae), sandgrouse (Ord. Pteroclidiformes, Fam. Pteroclididae), cuckoos (Ord. Cuculiformes, Fam. Cuculidae), nightjars (Ord. Caprimulgiformes, Fam. Caprimulgidae), rollers (Ord. Coraciiformes, Fam. Coraciidae), bee-eaters (Ord. Coraciiformes, Fam. Meropidae), (Ord. Coraciiformes, Fam. Upupidae), kingfishers (Ord. Coraciiformes, Fam. Alcedinidae) and swifts (Ord. Apodiformes, Fam. Apodidae) in Europe, particularly the Carpathian Basin, during the Tertiary and Quaternary, as well as their osteological characteristics. These orders generally contain a small number of species in Europe, most of them consisting of thermophilic, migratory species. Their fossil and subfossil remains provide precious information about the climatic conditions of their respective areas of origin.
The text is supplemented by 15 figures and 2 tables.