Pterosaur to bird - hand development

The pteroid is composed of two fused phalanges.
http://www.oceansofkansas.com/Pteranodon/FHSM/FHSM%20VP-2072Pteroid1.jpg

http://www.oceansofkansas.com/Pteranodon.html

The radius, ulna and pteroid bones of FHSM VP-2183. The pteroid bone was once considered to be the 'thumb' (e.g. Digit I) in pterosaurs. The two other pieces of bone in the upper left of the photo are the proximal and distal syncarpals (wrist bones) that would connect to metacarpal IV.  

http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/raptors/physical-characteristics.htm
"The wings of many diurnal birds of prey have a vestigial claw located at the end of the thumb bone."

http://www.shearwater.nl/index.php?file=kop126.php

The alula (thumb wing) consists of one phalanx (occasionally two, sometimes even with a nail in some bird species). The alula is present in all birds except the penguins, where it is fused to the carpomatacarpus. It is a freely movable digit with a few small feathers attached. The function of the alula is not yet fully understood. Ornithologists suggest that one function among others is in the landing because it can make a change in the airflow and turbulence along the wing edge. The alula articulates to the carpometacarpus near the wrist.
There has been discussion about whether the alula is really a thumb or an index finger remaining after an evolutionary adaptation. Recent genetic research has shown that the alula is a real thumb and the other two the 'index finger' and 'middle finger'. The outer two fingers are lost (Kaiser 2007).

Arm section

1. Upper arm - humerus
2. Sesamoid bone - os sesamoides.
3. Ulna - ulna
4. Radius - Radius

Hand section (manus)

5. Wrist - radiale and ulnare
6. Metacarpal - carpometacarpus
7. Thumb - alula
8. Digits - phalanges

Seriema

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seriema

The seriemas are the sole extant members of the small and ancient familyCariamidae, which is also the sole surviving family of the Cariamae. Once believed to be related to cranes, they have been placed by one recent study near the falcons, parrots and passerines.^[1] There are two species:

• Red-legged Seriema, or Crested Cariama, Cariama cristata. This is found from eastern Brazil, to central Argentina. It is bigger and nests on the ground or in a bush or tree up to 3 m (9.8 ft) above the ground.
• Black-legged Seriema, Chunga burmeisteri. This is found in northwest Argentina and Paraguay. It nests in a tree.

The seriemas have an extensible second claw that is raised from the ground. This resembles the "sickle claw" of Velociraptor and its relatives.

Paraphyletic = Ancestral

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dromaeosauridae#Flying_and_gliding
"As late as 2001, Mark Norell and colleagues analyzed a large survey of coelurosaur [maniraptor] fossils and produced the tentative result that dromaeosaurids were most closely related to birds, with troodontids as a more distant outgroup. They even suggested that Dromaeosauridae could be paraphyletic [ancestral] relative to Avialae."


I am quoting this because it sheds light on the word "paraphyletic".
"Paraphyletic" means ANCESTRAL!

It would be a helpful  exercise to substitute the word "ancestral" whenever we see the word "paraphyletic".

There is certainly nothing wrong with being "paraphyletic" since it simply means ANCESTRAL.

Neoteny

For reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaeognathae
"Other authors have questioned the monophyly of the Palaeognathae on various grounds, suggesting that they could be a hodgepodge of unrelated birds that have come to be grouped together because they are coincidentally flightless. One point is that unrelated birds have developed somewhat ratite-like anatomies multiple times around the world through convergent evolution. McDowell (1948)) asserted that the similarities in the palate anatomy of paleognathes might actually be neoteny, or retained embryonic features. He noted that there were other feature of the skull, such as the retention of sutures into adulthood, that were like those of juvenile birds. Thus, perhaps the characteristic palate was actually a frozen stage that many carinate bird embryos passed through during development. The retention of early developmental stages, then, may have been the mechanism by which various birds became flightless and came to look similar to one another.[19]"


Notice that this relates to not just flightlessness, but also the palate:
"Thus, perhaps the characteristic palate was actually a frozen stage that many carinate bird embryos passed through during development. "

Origin of flightlessness

This research requires some changes be made to what I have proposed concerning flightless birds. Flightless birds will have to be integrated into multiple lines. For simplicity I had them in one single line.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100126105429.htm

"Their molecular dating study suggests that the ancestors of the African ostrich, Australasian emu plus cassowary, South American rheas and New Zealand moa became flightless independently, in close association with the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.

"Many of the world's largest flightless birds, known as ratites, were thought to have shared a common flightless ancestor. We followed up on recent uncertainty surrounding this assumption," said Dr Phillips.

"Our study suggests that the flighted ancestors of ratites appear to have been ground-feeding birds that ran well. So the extinction of the dinosaurs likely lifted predation pressures that had previously selected for flight and its necessary constraint, small size. Lifting of this pressure and more abundant foraging opportunities would then have selected for larger size and consequent loss of flight.

The finding of independent origins of flightlessness also solves a mystery of how these flightless birds dispersed across the world over marine barriers -- their ancestors flew."

Neutrino

“We don’t allow faster-than-light neutrinos in here,” says the bartender.

A neutrino walks into a bar.

Organizing the Material

There is a huge amount of material in this blog and it is a challenge to organize it.

I will organize it by type of bird such as those from my Dec 17, 2010 post (which I have updated a bit recently). I will set up a separate thread for each and then add info to each thread.

Categories:

• Landbirds (Owl)
• Landbirds (general)
• Landfowl
• Waterfowl (Presbyornithid line)
• Aquatic birds (Hesperornithes line)
• Waders/shorebirds
• Seabirds (Ichthyornithes line)
• Flightless birds

I will also set up GENERAL threads on common topics. 

Landbirds (Owl)

Landbirds (Owl)

• Pterosaur (eg. Pterodactylidae/Dsungaripteroidea)  eg. Nemicolopterus -->
• Enantiornithes landbird subgroup -->
• Primitive owls,  (eg. Sophiornithidae?) --> 
• Strigiformes (eg. owls), Caprimulgiformes (eg. nighthawks)

Sophiornithidae
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophiornithidae

Owl
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Northern_Spotted_Owl.USFWS-thumb.jpg/220px-Northern_Spotted_Owl.USFWS-thumb.jpg

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/6/1983.full

Nemicolopterus also demonstrates clear adaptations of the toes and claws for grasping tree branches. Most pterosaurs are known from marine sediments, meaning that they probably caught fish in the ocean and landed on the adjacent beaches or cliffs. Nemicolopterus, on the other hand, is one of just a few known pterosaurs that lived in the continental interior, and probably hunted insects and roosted in the forest canopy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophiornithidae
Sophiornithidae (literally "Wisdom Birds"), was a family of chicken-sized predatory birds that lived from the Paleocene to the Eocene periods of the Cenozoic, and were found primarily in Europe, and are thought to be primitive owls




This chart shows that owls have their own separate lineage (within the landbird branch) which supports what I have proposed concerning owls:

http://dragonsoftheair.wordpress.com/

"I wanted to quickly draw attention to a part of the wing that often gets overlooked…..the hair-like [feather-like?] structures along the trailing edge. Kellner et al. 2009 published a small photograph of this

Combs along the trailing edge of the wing (or turbine when we enter the realm of man-made machines) are known to reduce the noise produced by the animal during flight by collapsing the vortex shed off the wing. There is quite a bit of literature on this subject but its function in biological flight could warrant further attention. Owls are certainly the most famous example where these structures are used to reduce the noise produced by the wings

The examples above show just how similar the trailing edge structures of the wing in Jeholopterus (E) are when compared to those of an owl (A, B) and the obvious differences they have with those of a noisy flier, in this case a pigeon (C, D). While I am in no way trying to compare the functionality of a feather with that of the pterosaur membrane, the presence of trailing edge structures would almost certainly function in a similar way to other noise reduction structures.

Jeholopterus shares a couple of similarities with that of the barn owl: they both use a slow flight while hunting and both were active during times of darkness or at least periods of low light, but there the similarities end. Jeholopterus was almost certainly an insectivore rather than hunting small vertebrates and so it is not immediately apparent how effective a noise reducing structure like this would have been (hearing range of insects anyone?). So could Jeholopterus have used its trailing edge structures to break down the vortex shed off its wing? If so it would have flapped and glided over the darkening Mesozoic landscape using a combination of slow flight speed, high maneouverability and specialised fibres to reduce the noise frequency of the wings, snapping up insects as it went. Certainly some food for thought regardless."


http://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/anurognathids-as-apodiform-analogs/

"Here we’ll compare Batrachognathus [Anurognathidae pterosaur] with its modern analogs among birds, the swift (Apus apus, Figs. 2) and the nightjar (Caprimulgus), both members of the Apodiformes.""With their stiff, elliptical-tipped, narrow-chord wings, nighthawks remind me of anurognathids."

https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/tag/binocular-vision/

Perhaps binocular vision has been ignored by pterosaur workers largely because no others have bothered to accurately reconstruct the skulls of the only pterosaurs with substantial binocular vision, the owl-like anurognathids.

http://www.owlpages.com/articles.php?section=owl+physiology&title=Feathers

Most owls have relatively large, rounded wings. The wings are broad, with a large surface area relative to the weight of the bird i.e. a low wing loading. This allows them to fly buoyantly and effortlessly, without too much flapping and loss of energy. They can glide easily and fly slowly for long periods of time. Many species use this slow flight to hunt ground-dwelling prey from the air. 

Landbirds (General)

LANDBIRDS

• Landbirds (General)
  
  • Pterosaur (eg. Pterodactylidae/Dsungaripteroidea) eg. Nemicolopterus -->
  • Enantiornithes landbird subgroups -->
  • Modern landbird groups  (eg. Passerines, Falconiformes etc)

Enantiornithes
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Iberomesornis-model.jpg/250px-Iberomesornis-model.jpg

Modern Land Bird 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/House_sparrow04.jpg/220px-House_sparrow04.jpg

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/6/1983.full

Nemicolopterus also demonstrates clear adaptations of the toes and claws for grasping tree branches. Most pterosaurs are known from marine sediments, meaning that they probably caught fish in the ocean and landed on the adjacent beaches or cliffs. Nemicolopterus, on the other hand, is one of just a few known pterosaurs that lived in the continental interior, and probably hunted insects and roosted in the forest canopy.

Landfowl

Landfowl

• Pterosaur (eg.  Dsungaripteroidea)  eg. Nemicolopterus -->-->
• Enantiornithes landbird subgroup -->
• Modern "Galliformes"(eg. Chicken, Turkey, Pheasant, Quail) and Tinamiformes (Tinamou)

Fowl
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/Sonnerathuhn.jpg/240px-Sonnerathuhn.jpg

Tinamou
http://leesbirdblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/red-winged-tinamou-rhynchotus-rufescens-by-c2a9wiki.jpg

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/6/1983.full

Nemicolopterus also demonstrates clear adaptations of the toes and claws for grasping tree branches. Most pterosaurs are known from marine sediments, meaning that they probably caught fish in the ocean and landed on the adjacent beaches or cliffs. Nemicolopterus, on the other hand, is one of just a few known pterosaurs that lived in the continental interior, and probably hunted insects and roosted in the forest canopy.

Waterfowl

WATERFOWL (Presbyornithid line)

• Pterosaur (eg. Pterodactylidae/Ctenochasmatidae ) --->
• Presbyornithid subgroup--> 
• Modern Anseriformes (eg. Duck, Geese , Swan)

AND

• Pterosaur (Ctenochasmatidae) Pterodaustro   --->
• Presbyornithid subgroup--> 
• Primitive bird, Palaelodidae (Phoenicopteriformes)  --> 
• Flamingo (Phoenicopteriformes)

(Note: Vegavis may well be a part of this lineage. This needs more analysis.)

Presbyornis
http://critters.pixel-shack.com/WebImages/crittersgallery/Presbyornis.jpg

Goose
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJyZpdECUBlK3R-w2hXaS2_jUCFQHFk3UU17xq8ROiFcsjB7ZTDjG7gW8V_w

Flamingo
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/Flamingos_Laguna_Colorada.jpg/250px-Flamingos_Laguna_Colorada.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyornithidae
Presbyornithidae were a family of waterbirds with an apparently global distribution that lived until the Earliest Oligocene, but are now extinct. Initially, they were believed to present a mix of characters shown by waterbirds,shorebirds and flamingos and were used to argue for an evolutionary relationship between these groups (Feduccia 1976), but they are now generally accepted to be "wading ducks", the sister taxon [actually the ancestor] of the Anatidae, and thus essentially modern waterbirds. They were generally long-legged, long-necked birds, standing around one meter high, with the body of a duck, feet similar to a wader but webbed, and a flat duck-like bill adapted for filter feeding.  Apparently, at least some species were very social birds that lived in large flocks and nested in colonies.

As the "wading duck" moniker implies, they were waterfowl whose elongated legs enabled them to live a lifestyle similar to the "proto-flamingos" (e.g., Palaelodus) - which were not really ancestors of the modern flamingos, but a group that evolved in parallel with them and in fact seems to have taken over part of the presbyornithid's ecological niche after the latter became extinct. Thus, while probably somewhat capable of swimming, they would have preferred to strain the shallow waters of their habitat for food and were also able to snatch up insects and small crustaceans on dry land, just like some species of modern ducks, e.g., the Laysan Duck, hunt for brine flies.

Presbyornithids
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous? - Oligocene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyornis
Presbyornis is an extinct genus of anseriform bird. It contains two unequivocally accepted species; the well-known P. pervetus and the much lesser-known P. isoni. P. pervetus was approximately the size and shape of a goose, but with longer legs; P. isoni, known from a few bones, was much larger, more than swan-sized. Other fossils, more doubtfully assigned to this genus, are also known.

Judging from numerous fossil findings, Presbyornis is presumed to have lived in colonies around shallow lakes. Its broad, flat bill was used to filter food (small plants and animals) from the water, in the manner of today's dabbling ducks.^[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galloanserae
"Fowl were the first neognath lineages to evolve. From the limitedfossils that have to date been recovered, the conclusion that they were already widespread - the predominant group of modern birds - by end of the Cretaceous is generally accepted nowadays.Fossils such as Vegavis indicate that essentially modern waterfowl - albeit belonging to a nowadays extinctlineage - were contemporaries of the (non-avian)dinosaurs.

Note: 

It says "albeit belonging to a nowadays extinct lineage". It should say that the Vegavis developed into modern waterfowl. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegavis
"Vegavis is a genus of extinct bird that lived during the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian stage) of Antarctica, some 65 mya. It belonged to the clade Anseriformes. Among modern birds,Vegavis is most closely related to ducks and geese (Anatidae), but it is not considered to be a direct ancestor of them." [However it possibly should be considered a direct ancestor of them].
The discovery of the type species, Vegavis iaai, demonstrates that the major groups of bird alive today had already diversified in the Cretaceous. This supports the longstanding phylogenetic inferences of paleornithologists.^{[citation needed]} It has been hailed as the first definitive physical proof that representatives of some of the groups of modern birds lived in theMesozoic.^[1]"

http://www.digimorph.org/specimens/Vegavis_iaai/nature03150.pdf
and
http://www.livescience.com/animals/050125_dino_chickens.html

"We have more data than ever to propose at least the beginnings of the radiation of all living birds in the Cretaceous," Clarke says. "We now know that duck and chicken relatives coexisted with non-avian dinosaurs. This does not mean that today's chicken and duck species lived with non-avian dinosaurs, but that the evolutionary lineages leading to today's chicken and duck species did." (Julia A. Clarke1,2, Claudia P. Tambussi3, Jorge I. Noriega4,
Gregory M. Erickson5,6,7 & Richard A. Ketcham8)


FLAMINGOS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamingo

Relationships to the waterfowl were considered as well,^[3] especially as flamingos and waterfowl are parasitized by feather lice of the genus Anaticola, which are otherwise exclusively found on ducks and geese.^[4]

Pterosaurs lasted till late Cretaceous

Presbyornithids spanned from late Cretaceous? to Early Oligocene

Palaelodidae spanned from early Oligocene to Middle Pleistocene

Modern flamingos span from 30 mya to the present day


http://www.flamingos-world.com/flamingo-evolution.html

* There is evidence to indicate the Flamingo evolved at least 30 million years ago, perhaps longer. 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.20990/pdf

"Our investigation of skeletal and ontogenetic variation in Pterodaustro gives insights into the
developmental growth dynamics of this unusual ctenochasmatid pterodactyloid from early
ontogeny through to adulthood and also pro vides information pertaining to histological variability within and between bones of individuals. This study also documents the presence of what appears to be medullary bone tissue within the medullary cavity of a large femur of Pterodaustro. This  suggests that,  like  birds,  reproductively  active female  pterosaurs  may have deposited a special bone tissue (medullary bone) to cope with  the demand of  calcium  during  eggshelling."

Aquatic Birds

AQUATIC BIRDS (Hesperornithes line) 

• Pterosaur (Pterodactylidae/Ctenochasmatidae) eg. Pterodactylus --> 
• Baptornithidae (Hesperornithes) --> 
• (primarily foot-propelled) WEB FOOT diving bird orders, eg. Cormorants (Phalacrocoracidae), Loons (Gaviidae),   Penguins  (Sphenisciformes)

AND

• Pterosaur (Pterodactylidae/Ctenochasmatidae) eg. Pterodactylus -->
• Hesperornithidae (Hesperornithes) --> 
• (primarily foot-propelled) LOBE FOOT diving bird orders eg. Grebes (Podicipedidae).

Baptornis (Baptornithidae)
http://oceansofkansas.com/Hesperornis/martin60.jpg

Hesperonis (Hesperornithidae)
http://oceansofkansas.com/Hesperornis/hespercb.jpg

Loon
http://bwfov.typepad.com/birders_world_field_of_vi/images/2007/07/18/loon_2.jpg

Grebe
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Podiceps_nigricollis_001.jpg/220px-Podiceps_nigricollis_001.jpg

http://cdn2.arkive.org/media/EB/EB8E3CC3-0C9B-4CDB-BFCA-D997ED9BB29D/Presentation.Large/Great-Crested-Grebe-diving-under-water-for-fish.jpg

Example of "web foot"

Example of "lobe foot"

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQya_S0oFx8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIOTp8b1b2U
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQme1IrGlEU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOXMfe2SAWA
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDG_e2IgrFc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperornis
"Hesperornis is an extinct genus of flightless aquatic birds that lived during the Santonian to Campanian sub-epochs of the Late Cretaceous (89–65 mya).
Although some of the smaller species might have been able to fly,Hesperornis and Baptornis had only vestigial wings. Like living foot-propelled diving birds, the femur and metatarsus were short, whereas the tibia was long. The legs were also set far back on the body, as in loons, grebes or penguins."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grebe
"The cladistics vs. phenetics debate of the mid-20th century revived scientific interest in generalizing comparisons. As a consequence, the discredited grebe-loon link was discussed again. This even went as far as proposing monophyly for grebes, loons, and the toothed Hesperornithiformes "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperornithidae
These birds were originally combined with Ichthyornis in the paraphyletic "Odontornithes" by Othniel Charles Marsh, in 1873. In 1875, they were separated as Odontolcae. The group was often considered to be allied to loons and grebes,^[4]or to the Paleognathae.^[5] These similarities, however, as the more recently determined fact that the osteons of their bones - at least in Hesperornis - were arranged in a pattern similar to that in Neognathae,^[6] are today considered to be due to convergent evolution.^[7]


http://archive.peabody.yale.edu/scipubs/bulletins_postillas/ypmP207_1991.pdf

"The skull of Hesperornis proves to be neognathous in the majority of diagnostic
characters including the presence of the intrapterygoid joint."

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2413412
"A cladistic analysis of the skeletons of loons (Gaviidae), grebes (Podicipedidae), and the Cretaceous diving birds, Hesperornisand Baptornis, supports the hypothesis that they form a monophyletic group (here called the Gaviomorphae) within the class Aves. Two lineages within the gaviomorphs can be delineated: (1) loons + grebes, and (2) Hesperornis + Baptornis. The Early Cretaceous Enaliornis and the Late Cretaceous Neogaeornis are related to the second lineage; the Late Cretaceous Lonchodytes, often placed near loons, is apparently not a gaviomorph but perhaps a charadriiform. Skeletal evidence also suggests that penguins (Spheniscidae) are the sister-group of the Gaviomorphae. Arguments that similarities of gaviomorph taxa represent convergence are not well founded. First, morphological differences among taxa do not constitute valid evidence against their monophyly, as many previous workers have argued. Second, in no case has anyone supporting convergence presented a corroborated alternative phylogenetic hypothesis. A close relationship among gaviomorphs, penguins, and apparently also the Procellariiformes and Pelecaniformes implies that a lineage of aquatic birds was established very early in avian history, presumably in the Early Cretaceous or Late Jurassic." (Joel Cracraft 1982)


Looks like Joel Cracraft was on the right track!
(Note the issue here is not whether grebes and loons go together but that hesperornithiformes is linked to modern birds such as grebes and/or loons.)


I was quite surprised/pleased to see this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_birds
"In traditional classification, the Neornithes also included a third superorder, the Odontognathae, containing advanced toothed birds from the Cretaceous, like Hesperornis and Ichthyornis.[5] This superorder is likely paraphyletic [ANCESTRAL], and fall outside [ancestral to] the crown group birds. It is not entirely clear whether the Palaeognathae too are paraphyletic, or represent a primitve grade of birds.[6]"

This seems to be saying exactly what I have been saying. 
Modern bird taxa developed from such taxa as Hesperornithes and Ichthyornithes etc.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_bird

Diving birds are birds which plunge into water to catch fish or other food. They may enter the water from flight, as does the brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), or they may dive from the surface of the water. More than likely they evolved from birds already adapted for swimming that were equipped with such adaptations as lobed or webbed feet forpropulsion.

Foot-propelled diving birds

Some diving birds - for example, the extinct Hesperornithes of the Cretaceous Period - propelled themselves with their feet. They were large, streamlined, flightless birds with teeth for grasping slippery prey. Today, Cormorants (familyPhalacrocoracidae), Loons (Gaviidae), and Grebes (Podicipedidae) are the major groups of foot propelled diving birds.

Wing-propelled diving birds

Other diving birds are wing - propelled, most notably the Penguins (Sphenisciformes), Dippers (Cinclus) and Auks(Alcidae).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptornithidae

"Thus the toes of Baptornis were probably webbed as in loons or ducks, rather than lobed as in grebes and Hesperornis: for birds with lobed toes, rotating the toes is necessary to reduce drag when pulling the foot forward for a new stroke."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperornithes

Loss and/or fusion of caudal vertebrae in pygostyle-like structures was a general trend in Cretaceous avian evolution, and a full pygostyle and associated structures may have evolved more than once to similar shapes. The fact that Gansus had non-pneumatized, dense bones, like those of hesperornithines, although it was not a specialized diver, is interesting to note. Similarly, the bone structure of Hesperornis indicates that as opposed to Enantiornithes and in line with other Ornithurae it showed rapid, uninterrupted growth to adult size.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormorant

They [cormorants] are coastal rather than oceanic birds, and some have colonised inland waters - indeed, the original ancestor of cormorants seems to have been a fresh-water bird, judging from the habitat of the most ancient lineage. They range around the world, except for the central Pacific islands.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667197901026

We report on the bone microstructure of the Cretaceous birds Hesperornis regalis and Ichthyornis victor. Thin sections of representative elements of both these ornithurine birds show a rapid, sustained bone deposition without any pauses or interruptions in bone formation. This growth pattern contrasts sharply with the cyclical pattern of bone deposition previously reported for the Cretaceous non-ornithurine birds Patagopteryx and representatives of the enantiornithines. These findings suggest physiological advancement in Cretaceous ornithurine birds. The bone microstructure of the diving Hesperornis shows similarities to the bone structure of modern penguins, and to that of a loon from the Cretaceous of Antarctica.