Laornis

Laornis

Laornis is a genus of a prehistoric neornithine birds. We only know about it from one bone called Specimen YPM 820. This bone is a tibiotarsus, which is a leg bone. It was found in the late 1800s. Because we only have one species, the genus is monotypic. The species is called Laornis edvardsianus.

The name Laornis means "stone bird". It comes from the Ancient Greek words lao, meaning "stone", and ornis, meaning "bird". The species name edvardsianus honors Alphonse Milne-Edwards, a French paleontologist.

The bone was found in rocks from the Late Cretaceous or Early Paleocene period. These rocks are in the Hornerstown Formation at the Birmingham Marl Pits, in Pemberton Township, New Jersey, United States. These rocks are about 66–63 million years old.

From the shape of the bone, scientists think Laornis was a bird that lived near water. It had long legs and was about the size of a large goose. It might have been a wading bird, standing about one meter tall. Or it could have been a larger seabird with shorter legs.

Scientists think Laornis might be related to several types of birds, such as the Charadriiformes and the Gruiformes. It is placed in its own family called Laornithidae. It might have been related to the ancestor of many modern wading birds. It could also have been related to extinct stilt-legged waterfowl of the Presbyornithidae. Or it might have been an ancient pseudotooth bird, a type of seabird that evolved to very large sizes later.