Order Charadriiformes
Reading edition
"Form Family" Graculavidae Fürbringer, 1888
Type Genus.—Graculavus Marsh, 1872.
Included Genera.—Graculavus Marsh, 1872; Telmatornis Marsh, 1870; Anatalavis, new genus; Laornis Marsh, 1870; Palaeotringa Marsh, 1870; and an additional unnamed genus.
Remarks.—Most of the birds from the New Jersey deposits belong with what Olson (1985) has termed the "transitional Charadriiformes," a group that seemingly tends to connect the Gruiformes and the more typical Charadriiformes. The only living family in this group that has traditionally been considered charadriiform is the Burhinidae, the thick-knees or stone curlews. Other apparent descendants include ibises (Plataleidae) and the ducks and geese of the order Anseriformes. The latter are linked with the "transitional Charadriiformes" through the Paleocene and Eocene genus Presbyornis, which is known from abundant material from widely scattered areas of the world (Olson and Feduccia, 1980b; Olson, 1985). Presbyornis combines a long-legged shorebird-like body with the head of a duck. The fragmentary Cretaceous fossils from New Jersey, all of which are postcranial, usually show more similarity to Presbyornis than to any modern group of birds except the Burhinidae. Therefore, our comparisons have been made chiefly with these two groups.
With the fragmentary material at hand it is difficult, well nigh impossible, to make hard and fast taxonomic judgments concerning the number of species, genera, or families represented. Birds with very similar wing or leg elements could have had completely different feeding adaptations and could represent ancestral forms leading to different modern groups not considered to be closely related. For example, without the skull, Presbyornis could not be determined as having anything to do with the Anseriformes (Olson and Feduccia, 1980b: 12-13).
Late Cretaceous fossil birds of modern aspect have been described in a variety of genera, most of which have been used as the basis for family-group names. Taxa from New Jersey that appear to belong with the "transitional Charadriiformes" for which family-group names are available include: Graculavinae Fürbringer, 1888; Palaeotringinae Wetmore, 1940; Telmatornithidae Cracraft, 1972; and Laornithidae Cracraft, 1973.
Taxa from Upper Cretaceous deposits in western North America that appear to fall in the same category (Olson and Feduccia, 1980a) include: Apatornithidae Fürbringer, 1888; Cimolopterygidae Brodkorb, 1963a; Torotigidae Brodkorb, 1963a; and Lonchodytidae Brodkorb, 1963a.
Tertiary taxa that may possibly be related to the "transitional Charadriiformes" and that have been used as the basis of family-group names are: Presbyornithidae Wetmore, 1926 (Nautilornithinae Wetmore, 1926, and Telmabatidae Howard, 1955, are definitely synonyms); Scaniornithidae Lambrecht, 1933; and Dakotornithidae Erickson, 1975.
Doubtless there are others that we have overlooked. How many families are actually represented here and what their interrelationships may be is purely a matter of conjecture in the absence of better fossil material. Because the entire skeleton of Presbyornis is known, the familial name Presbyornithidae may justifiably be retained and used for that genus.
In the case of the Cretaceous birds under consideration here, we have decided for the time being to adopt a version of paleobotanical convention in recognizing a "form family" Graculavidae, which implies a general similarity in morphology of the constituent taxa, although the material available is simply not sufficient for determining phylogeny or key adaptations.