LONGIPTERYGID BIRDS: RECONSTRUCTING DIET VIA QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
Longipterygidae is one of the best known group of Cretaceous birds, famous for their long snout with teeth restricted only at the tip. This strange morphology has lead scientists to hypothesise that they ate fish probed for invertebrates, but these hypotheses have gone untested. I apply four quantitative analyses to investigate the diet of this group: body mass, claw traditional morphometrics, skull mechanical advantage, and finite element analysis of the skull. Results support all longipterygids being invertivorous, with some variation in degrees of arboreality.
Additional Information: Mr. Case Miller, Case.Miller@connect.hku.hk