Kingdom Animalia Family †Cimolopterygidae Scientific name Ceramornis major Rank Genus | Class Aves Species †C. major Phylum Chordata Order Shorebirds | |
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Ceramornis is a prehistoric bird genus from the Late Cretaceous. It lived shortly before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event in the Maastrichtian, some 66 million years ago (mya). Its remains were found in the Lull 2 location, a Lance Formation site in Niobrara County, Wyoming (United States). A single species is known, Ceramornis major, and even that only from a proximal piece of coracoid. This is specimen UCMP V53957, which was collected by a University of California team in 1958.
Its relationships are unresolved, mainly due to the paucity of material. While the material is not enough to be assessed by wide-scale cladistic analysis, it has been quantitatively compared to other avian coracoids. The bone looks decidedly neornithine, and most similar to Charadriiformes especially. It is not certain that this clade was already distinct by the Maastrichtian.
Some have allied it with Cimolopteryx in the group Cimolopterygidae.