Discovery of a Cretaceous Bird, Apparently Ancestral to the Orders Coraciiformes and Piciformes (Aves: Carinatae)

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Abstract
Alexornis antecedens, new genus and species, is described from the Bocana Roja Formation, Upper Cretaceous (Campanian age), near El Rosario, Baja California, Mexico. The humerus, ulna, scapula, coracoid, femur, and tibiotarsus are represented. The fossil is referred to a new family, Alexornithidae, and a new order, Alexornithiformes, thought to be ancestral to the Tertiary and Recent orders Coraciiformes and Piciformes. Since Caenagnathus collinsi Sternberg and C. sternbergi Cracraft are reptiles, and Gobipteryx minuta Elzanowski appears to be reptilian also, Alexornis is the only certain land bird known from the Cretaceous.
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