HOME | DD

Description
Last year I posted a scene depicting some bird species known from the Messel Pit (Germany) in the shores of the lake that was present in the area around 48 million years ago. I wasn't very happy with the result (see here: www.deviantart.com/diegooa/art… ), so after many months I decided to portray some of the depicted species individually. And this is the result: 3 Eocene birds related to modern groups of waterbirds, which are the following:

- Juncitarsus merkeli (left): a relative of both flamingos and grebes, with more resemblance to the former. With very long legs, this bird slightly smaller than the modern lesser flamingo was probably a wader, feeding in the shores of the Messel lake. Another species of the genus. J. gracilitarsus, is also known from North America

- Masillastega rectirostris (top right): an early sulid, the family that contains gannets and boobies. Known only from a skull, it was a freshwater bird, unlike its modern relatives (which are all seabirds). It lacked the adaptations for plunge diving of modern sulids, so its ecological niche is uncertain; I decided to take a slight cormorant-like appearance, though this is speculative

- Rhynchaeites messelensis (bottom right): an early ibis, known from at least 15 specimens from the Messel Pit. With shorter legs, it was less adapted for wading that some modern ibises, being more suited to probe the forest floor. Some bird leg fossils known from the Early Eocene of Denmark may also belong to this species

Description
Last year I posted a scene depicting some bird species known from the Messel Pit (Germany) in the shores of the lake that was present in the area around 48 million years ago. I wasn't very happy with the result (see here: www.deviantart.com/diegooa/art… ), so after many months I decided to portray some of the depicted species individually. And this is the result: 3 Eocene birds related to modern groups of waterbirds, which are the following:

- Juncitarsus merkeli (left): a relative of both flamingos and grebes, with more resemblance to the former. With very long legs, this bird slightly smaller than the modern lesser flamingo was probably a wader, feeding in the shores of the Messel lake. Another species of the genus. J. gracilitarsus, is also known from North America

- Masillastega rectirostris (top right): an early sulid, the family that contains gannets and boobies. Known only from a skull, it was a freshwater bird, unlike its modern relatives (which are all seabirds). It lacked the adaptations for plunge diving of modern sulids, so its ecological niche is uncertain; I decided to take a slight cormorant-like appearance, though this is speculative

- Rhynchaeites messelensis (bottom right): an early ibis, known from at least 15 specimens from the Messel Pit. With shorter legs, it was less adapted for wading that some modern ibises, being more suited to probe the forest floor. Some bird leg fossils known from the Early Eocene of Denmark may also belong to this species