hesperornithiform

English

Noun

hesperornithiform (plural hesperornithiforms)

1. Any of the clade †Hesperornithes of extinct toothed birds.
   • 2002, Gregory S. Paul, Dinosaurs of the Air, Johns Hopkins University Press, page 151:

     Flight loss among marine divers started in the Cretaceous, among the hesperornithiforms and perhaps separately in the baptornithids.

   • 2015 November 19, “Identification of a New Hesperornithiform from the Cretaceous Niobrara Chalk and Implications for Ecologic Diversity among Early Diving Birds”, in PLOS ONE‎^[1], →DOI:

     This study presents a new taxon of hesperornithiform from the Smoky Hill Member, Fumicollis hoffmani, the holotype of which is among the more complete hesperornithiform skeletons.

   • 2016, Luis M. Chiappe, Meng Qingjin, Birds of Stone, Johns Hopkins University Press, page 238:

     Comprehensive studies of hesperornithiforms show how some of these birds independently evolved large sizes (at least twice) during their long evolutionary history.