#Paakniwatavis

[new-dinosaurs]

Paakniwatavis grandei Musser & Clarke, 2024 (new genus and species)

(Type specimen of Paakniwatavis grandei, from Musser and Clarke, 2024)

Meaning of name: Paakniwatavis = Paakniwat [water spirits in Shoshoni legend] bird [in Latin]; grandei = for Lance Grande [American biologist and collector of the original fossil]

Age: Eocene (Ypresian), between 51–52 million years old

Where found: Green River Formation, Wyoming, U.S.A.

How much is known: Partial skeleton of one individual including much of the skull and many limb bones.

Notes: Paakniwatavis was a waterfowl. Unlike most modern ducks and geese, Paakniwatavis lacked a broad, flattened bill. Instead, its bill more closely resembles that of an unusual group of South American waterfowl, the screamers, which have narrow, somewhat chicken-like beaks. Despite this, the describers of Paakniwatavis suggest that it was more closely related to ducks and geese than to screamers based on their phylogenetic analyses, which may indicate that the broad-billed waterfowl evolved from an ancestor similar to Paakniwatavis.

Reference: Musser, G. and J.A. Clarke. 2024. A new Paleogene fossil and a new dataset for waterfowl (Aves: Anseriformes) clarify phylogeny, ecological evolution, and avian evolution at the K–Pg Boundary. PLoS ONE 19: e0278737. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278737