本文报道了阿拉斯加州王子溪组的极纬度北极鸟类组合-最北端晚白垩纪陆地生态系统。许多三维保存的化石构成了晚白垩纪鸟类最丰富的分类组合之一，包括黄昏鸟目、鱼鸟目和近冠或冠鸟（Neornithes）的成员，记录了以前未记载的鸟类进化间隔。大量的围产期化石代表了鸟类在极地筑巢的最古老证据，这表明鸟类在白垩纪就开始在季节性的极地环境中繁殖，远远早于它们的现代后代。
据了解，极地生态系统是由鸟类构建和丰富的，它们季节性地在那里筑巢，是生态系统的基石成员。尽管极地鸟类的生态重要性，但高纬度筑巢策略的起源仍然被稀疏的化石记录所模糊。
附：英文原文
Title: Arctic bird nesting traces back to the Cretaceous
Author: Lauren N. Wilson, Daniel T. Ksepka, John P. Wilson, Jacob D. Gardner, Gregory M. Erickson, Donald Brinkman, Caleb M. Brown, Jaelyn J. Eberle, Chris L. Organ, Patrick S. Druckenmiller
Issue&Volume: 2025-05-29
Abstract: Polar ecosystems are structured and enriched by birds, which nest there seasonally and serve as keystone ecosystem members. Despite the ecological importance of polar birds, the origins of high-latitude nesting strategies remain obscured by a sparse fossil record. We report an extreme-latitude Arctic avialan assemblage from the Prince Creek Formation of Alaska—the northernmost Late Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystem. Numerous three-dimensionally preserved fossils constitute one of the most taxonomically rich Late Cretaceous avialan assemblages, including members of Hesperornithes, Ichthyornithes, and near-crown or crown birds (Neornithes), recording a previously undocumented interval in avialan evolution. Abundant perinatal fossils represent the oldest evidence of birds nesting at polar latitudes, which demonstrates that birds began using seasonal polar environments for breeding during the Cretaceous, long before their modern descendants.
DOI: adt5189
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt5189