Halimornis
Encyclopedia
Halimornis was an enantiornithine bird. It lived during the Late Cretaceous about 80 mya and is known from fossil
s found in the Mooreville Chalk Formation
in Greene County, Alabama
. It is known from a single fossil individual, including preserved vertebrae, leg bones and part of the humerus (upper arm bone).
At the time, the area where the Mooreville Chalk was deposited was situated on the southern coast of the Western Interior Seaway
, and may have been the site of a large delta where several major rivers flowed into the shallow sea. The fossil bird was found at a location that would have been about 50 km off shore, indicating that it was an ocean-going species. The name Halimornis means "bird of the sea". It would have lived alongside the more advanced seabird Ichthyornis dispar. It is one of the only known enantiornithine birds to have lived in a marine environment, along with the Australian Nanantius eos and "Ichthyornis" minusculus, which was originally misidentified as Ichthyornis based on its presence in marine deposits.
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s found in the Mooreville Chalk Formation
Mooreville Chalk Formation
The Mooreville Chalk Formation is a geological formation in North America, within the U.S. states of Alabama and Mississippi. The strata date back to the early Santonian to the early Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. The chalk was formed by pelagic sediments deposited along the eastern edge...
in Greene County, Alabama
Greene County, Alabama
Greene County is the least populous county in the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island. As of 2010 the population was 9,045...
. It is known from a single fossil individual, including preserved vertebrae, leg bones and part of the humerus (upper arm bone).
At the time, the area where the Mooreville Chalk was deposited was situated on the southern coast of the Western Interior Seaway
Western Interior Seaway
The Western Interior Seaway, also called the Cretaceous Seaway, the Niobraran Sea, and the North American Inland Sea, was a huge inland sea that split the continent of North America into two halves, Laramidia and Appalachia, during most of the mid- and late-Cretaceous Period...
, and may have been the site of a large delta where several major rivers flowed into the shallow sea. The fossil bird was found at a location that would have been about 50 km off shore, indicating that it was an ocean-going species. The name Halimornis means "bird of the sea". It would have lived alongside the more advanced seabird Ichthyornis dispar. It is one of the only known enantiornithine birds to have lived in a marine environment, along with the Australian Nanantius eos and "Ichthyornis" minusculus, which was originally misidentified as Ichthyornis based on its presence in marine deposits.