Arctic bird nesting traces back to the Cretaceous

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wilson, Lauren N.; Ksepka, Daniel T.; Wilson, John P.; Gardner, Jacob D.; Erickson, Gregory M.; Brinkman, Donald; Brown, Caleb M.; Eberle, Jaelyn J.; Organ, Chris L.; Druckenmiller, Patrick S.
• 署名单位: University of Alaska System; University of Alaska Fairbanks; University of Alaska System; University of Alaska Fairbanks; Princeton University; University of Reading; State University System of Florida; Florida State University; University of Alberta; University of Manitoba; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder; Montana State University System; Montana State University Bozeman
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8474
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adt5189
• 发表日期: 2025-05-29
• 页码: 974-978
• 关键词: mesozoic birds; systematics; aves

摘要

Polar ecosystems are structured and enriched by birds, which nest there seasonally and serve as keystone ecosystem members. Despite the ecological importance of polar birds, the origins of high-latitude nesting strategies remain obscured by a sparse fossil record. We report an extreme-latitude Arctic avialan assemblage from the Prince Creek Formation of Alaska-the northernmost Late Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem. Numerous three-dimensionally preserved fossils constitute one of the most taxonomically rich Late Cretaceous avialan assemblages, including members of Hesperornithes, Ichthyornithes, and near-crown or crown birds (Neornithes), recording a previously undocumented interval in avialan evolution. Abundant perinatal fossils represent the oldest evidence of birds nesting at polar latitudes, which demonstrates that birds began using seasonal polar environments for breeding during the Cretaceous, long before their modern descendants.