Sororavis, Mayr & Kitchener, 2023

Mayr, Gerald & Kitchener, Andrew C., 2023, A new fossil from the London Clay documents the convergent origin of a “ mousebird-like ” tarsometatarsus in an early Eocene near-passerine bird, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 68 (1), pp. 1-11 : 2

Genus Sororavis nov.

LSID Zoobank: http://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:E26943A7-0011-4266-A5C3-1F706C9EAD18 .

Type species: Sororavis solitarius sp. nov.; see below.

Etymology: From Latin soror, sister and avis, bird; in reference to the phylogenetic closeness of the new taxon to Morsoravis , to which the new name is intended to be phonetically similar.

Diagnosis.—The new taxon differs from Morsoravis Bertelli, Lindow, Dyke, and Chiappe, 2010 , in that the tarsometatarsus is more elongated (ratio length of bone to minimum width of shaft 12.9 vs. 8.9 in M. sedilis ). It is distinguished from Pumiliornis Mayr, 1999 in that the tibiotarsus has a pons supratendineus and the tarsometatarsus is more elongated (ratio length of bone to minimum width of shaft 12.9 vs. 8.3 in P. tessellatus ).