RARE Rail-Like Fossil Bird Songzia

Birds are not common in the fossil record, and this one represents the FIRST example from the Eocene I have had. It is a partial skeleton of an extinct genus known as Songzia heidangkouensis. The Sonziidae were some of the earliest rail-like members of the Order Gruiformes which includes the cranes, rails, and similar marsh-dwelling birds. This example shows the neck, vertebral column, and wing of one of these small marsh-dwellers.