Austinornis

{{short description|Extinct genus of birds}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossilrange/linked|Coniacian|Santonian}}

| display_parents = 2

| taxon = Austinornis

| authority = Clarke, 2004

| type_species = {{extinct}}Austinornis lentus

| type_species_authority = (Clarke, 2004)

| synonyms = Ichthyornis lentus (Marsh, 1877)

}}

Austinornis is an extinct genus of prehistoric ornithuran of uncertain phylogenetic placement from the Late Cretaceous of Texas. The paleontologist Julia A. Clarke named the genus in 2004 based on a partial tarsometatarsus fossil from Austin Chalk.{{cite journal | last1 = Clarke | first1 = J.A. | year = 2004 | title = Morphology, phylogenetic taxonomy, and systematics of Ichthyornis and Apatornis (Avialae: Ornithurae) | url = http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/dspace/bitstream/handle/2246/454/B286.?sequence=1 | journal = Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History | volume = 286 | pages = 1–179 | doi=10.1206/0003-0090(2004)286<0001:mptaso>2.0.co;2| hdl = 2246/454 | s2cid = 84035285 }} Although Austinornis was thought to be a pangalliform, other researchers have disputed its classification and dismissed it in phylogenetic analyses due to the fragmentary nature of the holotype.{{cite journal |author1=Cécile Mourer-Chauviré|author2=Martin Pickford|author3=Brigitte Senut |year=2011 |title=The first Palaeogene galliform from Africa |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225757134 |journal=Journal of Ornithology |volume=152 |issue=3 |pages=617–622 |doi=10.1007/s10336-010-0630-9|s2cid=1799305}}{{cite book|last1=Braun|first1=Edward L.|title=Avian Genomics in Ecology and Evolution|last2=Cracraft|first2=Joel|last3=Houde|first3=Peter|chapter=Resolving the Avian Tree of Life from Top to Bottom: The Promise and Potential Boundaries of the Phylogenomic Era|year=2019|pages=151–210|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-16477-5_6|isbn=978-3-030-16476-8|s2cid=198399272 }}{{Cite journal |last1=Ksepka |first1=Daniel T. |last2=Early |first2=Catherine M. |last3=Dzikiewicz |first3=Kate |last4=Balanoff |first4=Amy M. |date=October 2022 |title=Osteology and neuroanatomy of a phasianid (Aves: Galliformes) from the Miocene of Nebraska |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-paleontology/article/abs/osteology-and-neuroanatomy-of-a-phasianid-aves-galliformes-from-the-miocene-of-nebraska/693115C1761773ACC1F35326BD04570B |journal=Journal of Paleontology |volume=97 |language=en |pages=223–242 |doi=10.1017/jpa.2022.80 |s2cid=253033983 |issn=0022-3360}} Notably, in 2014, Gerald Mayr suggested that Austinornis is a non-neornithine from the Coniacian or Santonian age and that the specimen probably belongs to the ornithurine Apatornis or Iaceornis.{{Cite journal|last=Mayr|first=Gerald|date=March 2014|editor-last=Smith|editor-first=Andrew|title=The origins of crown group birds: molecules and fossils|journal=Palaeontology|language=en|volume=57|issue=2|pages=231–242|doi=10.1111/pala.12103|s2cid=85180754 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2014Palgy..57..231M }}