Vegaviid

2017 October 7, F. L. Agnolín, F. B. Egli, S. Chatterjee, J. A. G. Marsà, F. E. Novas, Vegaviidae, a new clade of southern diving birds that survived the K/T boundary, Naturwissenschaften, 104(11-12):87, doi: 10.1007/s00114-017-1508-y, Vegaviids share a combination of characters related to diving adaptations, including compact and thickened cortex of hindlimb bones, femur with anteroposteriorly compressed and bowed shaft, deep and wide popliteal fossa delimited by a medial ridge, tibiotarsus showing notably proximally expanded cnemial crests, expanded fibular crest, anteroposterior compression of the tibial shaft, and a tarsometatarsus with a strong transverse compression of the shaft. […] Moreover, vegaviids represent the first avian lineage to have definitely crossed the K-Pg boundary, supporting the idea that some avian clades were not affected by the end Mesozoic mass extinction event, countering previous interpretations.