 Most unrecognised pelagornithid bones were initially assigned to "higher waterbird" families however, typically to the (then-paraphyletic) "Pelecaniformes", but in particular the tarsometatarsus was typically mistaken for that of a procellariiform.The Odontopterygiformes were first proposed when "Osteodontornis" was described from the first – and still the only known – reasonably complete skeleton of one of these birds.Hildegarde Howard found that, no matter that some of its features resembled other birds, the combination was quite unlike any neognath known.