hesperornithiform

plural hesperornithiforms

1. Any of the clade †Hesperornithes of extinct toothed birds.

   Flight loss among marine divers started in the Cretaceous, among the hesperornithiforms and perhaps separately in the baptornithids.

   2002, Gregory S. Paul, Dinosaurs of the Air, Johns Hopkins University Press, page 151

   2 more examples

   This study presents a new taxon of hesperornithiform from the Smoky Hill Member, Fumicollis hoffmani, the holotype of which is among the more complete hesperornithiform skeletons.

   2015 November 19, “Identification of a New Hesperornithiform from the Cretaceous Niobrara Chalk and Implications for Ecologic Diversity among Early Diving Birds”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI

   Comprehensive studies of hesperornithiforms show how some of these birds independently evolved large sizes (at least twice) during their long evolutionary history.

   2016, Luis M. Chiappe, Meng Qingjin, Birds of Stone, Johns Hopkins University Press, page 238