STL Science Center

STL Science Center

26 June 2012

Writing Quality Papers Since 1874

The sheer amount of papers that exist which mention or briefly dabble in the anatomy of Ichthyornis are fairly amazing. In the interest of creating a concise reading list I have narrowed down the field however so as to make your day easier in terms of reading materials. I could have narrowed it down to just one paper produced by Julia Clarke during her time in North Carolina written in 2004 for the American Museum of Natural History's September bulletin. It is much more than a simple paper on one specific aspect of an extinct bird. In fact, it is an exhaustive, in a good way, study of Ichthyornis that includes tables, illustrations and in depth analyses of the anatomy, previous descriptions, and taxonomic placement just to name a very few topics discussed. It really is almost better suited to be its own book and could easily stand alone as the only reference I needed to share today. It will take you more than one sitting to read it, and not just because it is a scientific paper (which we all know can be quite boring and tedious reading material no matter who writes it). There are plenty of other papers also, some of which we may have included in Hesperornis' list as both birds are studied in parallel at times. Some of the papers to read more about Ichthyornis include but are not limited to the following:
Evolutionary Significance of the Mesozoic Toothed Birds; Philip Gingerich
A New Partial Mandible of Ichthyornis; Philip Gingerich
Comparative Osteological Notes on the Extinct Bird Ichthyornis; R.W. Shufeldt
On the Discovery of a Fossil Bird-Track in the Dakota Sandstone; F. H. Snow

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