What is "gallornis"

Gallornis is a genus of prehistoric birds from the Cretaceous. The single known species Gallornis straeleni lived near today's Auxerre in Yonne département ( France); it has been dated very tentatively to the Berriasian- Hauterivian stages, that is about 140–130 million years ago. The known fossil material consists of a worn partial femur and a fragment of the humerus.

This is a highly significant taxon for theories about the evolution of birds. Unfortunately, it is not known from much or well-preserved material. It has been proposed that the remains show features only known from the Neornithes – the group of birds that exists today. Thus, the Gallornis fossils suggest that as early as about 130 million years ago or more the ancestors of all living birds might already have been an evolutionary lineage distinct from the closely related Hesperornithes and Ichthyornithes (essentially modern birds retaining some more ancient features like teeth) and the more distantly related Enantiornithes (a group of more primitive toothed birds which were the most successful avians in the Mesozoic).