Definitive fossil evidence for the extant avian radiation in the Cretaceous

@article{Clarke2005DefinitiveFE,
  title={Definitive fossil evidence for the extant avian radiation in the Cretaceous},
  author={Julia A. Clarke and Claudia Patricia Tambussi and Jorge Ignacio Noriega and Gregory M. Erickson and Richard A. Ketcham},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2005},
  volume={433},
  pages={305-308}
}
Long-standing controversy surrounds the question of whether living bird lineages emerged after non-avian dinosaur extinction at the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary or whether these lineages coexisted with other dinosaurs and passed through this mass extinction event. Inferences from biogeography and molecular sequence data (but see ref. 10) project major avian lineages deep into the Cretaceous period, implying their ‘mass survival’ at the K/T boundary. By contrast, it has been argued that… 
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Timing the extant avian radiation: The rise of modern birds, and the importance of modeling molecular rate variation

How relationships between life-history and substitution rates can mislead divergence time studies that do not account for directional changes in substitution rates over time is discussed, and it is suggested that these effects might have caused some of the variation in existing molecular date estimates for birds.

Primate Origins: Implications of a Cretaceous Ancestry

A statistical analysis of the primate record allowing for major gaps now indicates a Cretaceous origin of euprimates 80–90 Ma ago, and the known early Tertiary primates are re-interpreted as northern continental offshoots of a ‘second wave’ of primate evolution.

Strong mitochondrial DNA support for a Cretaceous origin of modern avian lineages

This work fails to reconcile molecular genetic divergence time estimates with dates taken from the fossil record, but finds strong support for an ancient origin of modern bird lineages, with many extant orders and families arising in the mid-Cretaceous, consistent with previous molecular estimates.

Early Paleocene landbird supports rapid phylogenetic and morphological diversification of crown birds after the K–Pg mass extinction

The discovery of Tsidiiyazhi pushes the minimum divergence ages of as many as nine additional major neoavian lineages into the earliest Paleocene, compressing the duration of the proposed explosive post–K–Pg radiation of modern birds into a very narrow temporal window parallel to that suggested for placental mammals.

A molecular genetic time scale demonstrates Cretaceous origins and multiple diversification rate shifts within the order Galliformes (Aves).

Late Cretaceous neornithine from Europe illuminates the origins of crown birds

A newly discovered fossil from the Cretaceous of Belgium is the oldest modern bird ever found, showing a unique combination of features and suggesting attributes shared by avian survivors of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

New Zealand Passerines Help Clarify the Diversification of Major Songbird Lineages during the Oligocene

Dating analyses of this robust phylogeny suggest Passeriformes originated in the early Paleocene, with the major lineages of oscines “escaping” from Australasia about 30 Ma, and radiating throughout the world during the Oligocene.

Phylogenetically vetted and stratigraphically constrained fossil calibrations within Aves

Seven phylogenetically vetted fossil calibrations for major divergences within crown Aves representing the splits between Anatoidea, Sphenisciformes, Coracioidea and Upupiformes are provided to provide a starting point for workers interested in estimating confidence intervals or outlining prior age distribution curves.

A mitogenomic timescale for birds detects variable phylogenetic rates of molecular evolution and refutes the standard molecular clock.

The first comprehensive analysis of mitogenomic data of 48 vertebrates, including 35 birds, is performed to derive a Bayesian timescale for avian evolution and to estimate rates of DNA evolution, finding no support for the hypothesis that the molecular clock in birds "ticks" according to a constant rate of substitution per unit of mass-specific metabolic energy rather than per unitOf time, as recently suggested.

Early penguin fossils, plus mitochondrial genomes, calibrate avian evolution.

A test for events around the Late Cretaceous is reported by describing the earliest penguin fossils, analyzing complete mitochondrial genomes from an albatross, a petrel, and a loon, and describing the gradual decline of pterosaurs at the same time modern birds radiate.
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References

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