Iberomesornis
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Iberomesornis Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 125 Ma |
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| Cast of the holotype specimen, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | †Enantiornithes |
| Order: | †Iberomesornithiformes |
| Family: | †Iberomesornithidae |
| Genus: |
†Iberomesornis Sanz & Bonaparte, 1992 |
| Species: | †I. romerali |
| Binomial name | |
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Iberomesornis romerali Sanz & Bonaparte, 1992 |
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Iberomesornis ("Spanish intermediate bird") is a monotypic genus of enantiornithine bird of the Cretaceous of Spain.
In 1985 the fossil of Iberomesornis was discovered by Armando Díaz Romeral in the Early Cretaceous Calizas de La Huérguina Formation at Las Hoyas, Cuenca Province, east central Spain, which dates to the late Barremian, roughly 125 million years ago. The find was first reported in 1988. In 1992 the type species Iberomesornis romerali was named and described by José Luis Sanz and José Fernando Bonaparte. The generic name is derived from Iberia and Greek μέσος, mesos, "middle", en ὄρνις, ornis, "bird", in reference to the intermediate status between the most basal and the modern birds. The specific name honours Romeral.
The holotype specimen, LH-22, part of the Las Hoyas Collection, consists of a compressed articulated partial skeleton of an adult individual lacking the skull, the anterior neck and most of the hands. A second specimen, LH-8200, was referred to a Iberomesornis sp. in 1994, consisting of the left foot of an individual similar in size to the holotype. After further preparation of the fossil, the species was redescribed by Paul Sereno in 2000.
Iberomesornis was quite small, no bigger than a large modern sparrow. On the assumption it had relatively short wings, the wingspan was about twenty centimetres; its weight has been estimated at fifteen to twenty grammes. It bore a single claw on each wing. The preserved axial column length is eighty-seven millimetres. Its ribcage was not strengthened by ossified uncinate processes but cartilaginous processes were likely present.
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