• Post category:Bird Facts

History of Enaliornis – (100-108 million years ago)

Enaliornis bird - the earliest bird in Britain

Little is known about the Enaliornis bird, which appears to have been a little larger than a pigeon, as there have been no further finds since those of the 1850s and 60s. In 1858, Lucas Barrett of the then Woodwardian Museum in Cambridge discovered the remains in the Cambridge Greensand at Coldham Common between Grantchester and Cambridge.

Later there were further finds, the material consisting of several unassociated fragments, including a cranium and several limb fragments which are thought to represent the remains of a diver/grebe-like bird which Professor H. G. Seeley attempted to describe in 1864. For various reasons, the original names were not acceptable and it was not until 1869 that Seeley provided a valid description of the material, which included the creation of a single genus, Enaliornis, and two species, barretti, and sedgwicki. There was subsequent disagreement as to the exact age of the specimens, but they are now regarded as being Lower Cretaceous (Albian), for they are thought to have been derived from a slightly older deposit than the Cambridge Greensand.

Is Enaliornis 2nd oldest bird after Archaeopteryx?

Enaliornis is one of a small number of fossil birds from the Cretaceous period and so far no other species have been found to represent the 30 or so million years between them and Archaeopteryx. They are all obviously similar to modern birds, and thus many ‘missing’ links remain to be found.

Other birds claimed as the earliest in Britain

In 1973 C. A. Walker and C. Harrison of the British Museum (Natural History) described a fragmentary humerus from the Wealden of Sussex, which is somewhat older than Enaliornis. They named the specimen Wyleyia valdensis, but as there is some considerable argument about its avian affinities it is being disregarded at present.

There are numerous fossil birds from Britain which have been found in sediments of various ages. Possibly the most extensive avifauna known from 60 million years ago has been collected from the Lower Eocene deposits of south-east England.