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..Both loons and tubenoses are strongly suspected to have evolved in the Late Cretaceous already,..
- But this does not chime at all with the DNA results by Hackett et al (and others) that show that loons and tubenoses are not even Metaves but part of the megaradiation of the Neoaves that is likely to have taken place after K-T. This requires an update I think
Jcwf (talk) 13:59, 23 July 2008 (UTC)
- Briefly,
- Neither the post-K-Pg origin of the loon-tubenose-pelican-cormorant-penguin-stork clade nor the "Coronaves-Metaves" dichotomy are supported by a single shred of material evidence at present, and the latter miraculously disappears into thin air if your sequence data does not contain beta-Fibrinogen intron 7. While the alternative hypothesis has about a shoebox or two full of fossils in its favor, which is quite a lot for birds.
- (The case still holds true though: N. wetzeli was not a loon. These did indeed come later - perhaps some bolide descending over Yucatan separated them from the other "higher waterbirds". But that lineage as far as anyone is able to tell was very much busy radiating 65.7 million years ago. There is actually nothing in the fossil record that argues against it.) Dysmorodrepanis (talk) 01:46, 27 July 2008 (UTC)