Today sees the publication of the monster enantiornithine Mirarce eatoni (“Eaton’s wonderful winged messenger”) from the Kaiparowits Formation of Utah, by Jessie Atterholt, Howard Hutchinson, and Jingmai O’Connor. Not my critter, not my story, but it is SV-POW!-adjacent. (Just here for the paper?

Western University of Health Sciences

Matt Wedel

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image-title="Atterholt et al 2018 fig 19 by Scott Hartman"
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Skeletal reconstruction of *Mirarce* by Scott Hartman (Atterholt et al.
2018: fig. 19). Recovered bones in white, missing bones in gray. The
humerus is 95.9mm long.
:::

Today sees the publication of the monster enantiornithine *Mirarce
eatoni* ("Eaton's wonderful winged messenger") from the Kaiparowits
Formation of Utah, by [Jessie
Atterholt](https://www.jessieatterholt.com/), Howard Hutchinson, and
Jingmai O'Connor. Not my critter, not my story, but it is
SV-POW!-adjacent. (Just here for the paper? [Here's the
link](https://peerj.com/articles/5910/).)

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image-title="Mirarce sternum Atterholt et al 2018 fig 5"
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Xiphoid process of sternum of *Mirarce* (Atterholt et al. 2018: fig. 5).
Scale bar = 1cm.
:::

As of this past summer, I knew that Jessie had a prehistoric monster
coming out soon, and I knew that [Brian
Engh](http://dontmesswithdinosaurs.com/) liked bringing prehistoric
monsters to life, and I suspected that if the two reagents were
combined, the rest of us might get something cool out of it.

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image-title="Jessie Atterholt and Brian Engh hiking out 2018-07-13"
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Jessie and Brian talking about *Mirarce*, Utah for scale. July 13, 2018.
:::

I did some heavy eavesdropping while the three of us were stomping
around southern Utah looking for dinosaurs, so I got to hear Jessie and
Brian batting ideas back and forth. By the end of our Utah trip Brian
had sketches, and not long after, finished art (his post on *Mirarce*,
including process sketches, is
[here](http://dontmesswithdinosaurs.com/?p=2202){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}). If you've seen one of my talks in the last month or
so, you've gotten a teaser (with Jessie's and Brian's permission), and I
know the piece got shown around a bit at SVP, too. You've waited long
enough, here you go:

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image-title="Mirarce life restoration by Brian Engh – Atterholt et al 2018 fig 20"
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Not that the art is the whole story! *Mirarce* is a legitimately awesome
find and Jessie and her coauthors poured a ton of work into the
description. I'd tell you all about it, but much more capable and
bird-fluent folks are on that already, and I have spinal cord and
brainstem lectures to polish. So I'm gonna leave you with some links,
which I'll try to keep updated as different outlets get the story out:

- [Berkeley
  News](https://news.berkeley.edu/2018/11/13/rare-fossil-bird-deepens-mystery-of-avian-extinctions/)
- [National
  Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/11/new-dinosaur-era-bird-largest-north-america-fossils-paleontology/){target="_blank"
  rel="noopener"}
- [Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/bird-extinction-fossil-skeleton-dinosaurs-flight-cretaceous-science-a8631371.html){target="_blank"
  rel="noopener"}
- [Gizmodo](https://gizmodo.com/incredible-bird-dinosaur-specimen-thrills-scientists-af-1830408991){target="_blank"
  rel="noopener"}
- [PeerJ
  Blog](https://peerj.com/blog/post/115284881078/the-most-complete-enantiornithine-fossil-peerj-author/){target="_blank"
  rel="noopener"} -- a guest post in which Jessie herself explains
  what's cool about the find

## Reference

[Atterholt, J., Hutchinson, J.H.., and O'Connor, J.K. 2018. The most
complete enantiornithine from North America and a phylogenetic analysis
of the
Avisauridae. [PeerJ]{.self-citation-journal} [6]{.self-citation-volume}:](https://peerj.com/articles/5910/)[e5910 ]{.self-citation-elocation}<https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.5910>


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Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

Please welcome Mirarce eatoni