Eurotrochilus
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Eurotrochilus Temporal range: Early Oligocene, 34–28 Ma |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Apodiformes |
| Family: | Trochilidae |
| Genus: |
†Eurotrochilus Mayr, 2004 |
| Type species | |
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E. inexpectatus |
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| Species | |
Eurotrochilus is a genus of extinct members of the stem group Trochilidae and are the closest relatives of the crown group Trochildae, which includes modern hummingbirds. Despite Eurotrochilus having looked very similar to modern hummingbirds, they still retained several primitive features and are not closely related to any specific extant hummingbird in the crown group. There are currently two discovered species of Eurotrochilus- E. inexpectatus and E. noniewiczi.
Eurotrochilus has been dated back to the Rupelian age of the early Oligocene era, which occurred during the Paleogene period. While there is some debate over exactly when Eurotrochilus was present, the most recent estimate is suggested to be 28 to 34 million years ago.
The discovery of Eurotrochilus fossils in Germany, France, and Poland was extremely important because today all 328 of the extant species of hummingbirds only occur in the New World but the fossils of Eurotrochilus suggest an Old World origin. Extant hummingbirds are distinctly different than all other avains because of their unique adaptions for hovering flight and nectarivory. Like extant hummingbirds, Eurotrochilus has these adaptions and are the only genus of stem group Trochildae to do so.
The name Eurotrochilus is derived from the location and family of the fossils found. Euro stands for Europe, the continent where the holotype specimen was found, and Trochilus is representative of the type family of the modern Trochilidae. The species name E. inexpectus is Latin for “unexpected”, indicative of the surprise felt by Gerald Mayr and his team when they discovered a modern-type fossil Hummingbird in Europe. The name of the second species, E. noniewiczi, is acquired from the surname of the private collector, Edward Noniewicza, who found the fossil specimen.
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Wikipedia