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Enantiornithes
The Enantiornithes, also known as enantiornithines or enantiornitheans in literature, are a group of extinct avialans ("birds" in the broad sense), the most abundant and diverse group known from the Mesozoic era. Almost all retained teeth and clawed fingers on each wing, but otherwise looked much like modern birds externally. Over eighty species of Enantiornithes have been named, but some names represent only single bones, so it is likely that not all are valid. The Enantiornithes became extinct at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, along with Hesperornithes and all other non-avian dinosaurs. Discovery and naming The first Enantiornithes to be discovered were incorrectly referred to modern bird groups. For example, the first known species of Enantiornithes, '' Gobipteryx minuta'', was originally considered a paleognath related to ostriches and tinamou. The Enantiornithes were first recognized as a distinct lineage, or "subclass" of birds, by Cyril A. Walker in 1981. Walker ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathayornis
''Cathayornis'' is a genus of enantiornithean birds from the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, People's Republic of China. It is known definitively from only one species, ''Cathayornis yandica'', one of the first Enantiornithes found in China. Several additional species were once incorrectly classified as ''Cathayornis'', and have since been reclassified or regarded as ''nomina dubia''. Description ''Cathayornis yandica'' was a small enantiornithean with a slightly elongated, toothy snout and perching feet. Like most other Enantiornithes, it had large claws on the first two fingers that supported the wing. According to most recent studies, only one specimen can be definitively assigned to this species, a fossil catalogued as number IVPP V9769 and currently housed in the collections of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. ''Cathayornis'' can be told apart from similar Enantiornithes (especially '' Sinornis'', ''Eocathayornis'', and ''Houornis'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avisauridae
Avisauridae is a family of extinct enantiornithine dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period, distinguished by several features of their ankle bones. Depending on the definition used, Avisauridae is either a broad and widespread group of advanced enantiornithines (following Cau & Arduini, 2008), or a small family within that group, restricted to species from the Late Cretaceous of North and South America (following Chiappe, 1992). Description Avisaurids were among the largest and last enantiornithines to have lived, although they are also among the most poorly preserved. The majority of them are known primarily from fossilized tarsometatarsal bones, the part of a bird's leg formed by fused metatarsals (the bones which comprise the foot in humans). As a result, members of this family are distinguished from other enantiornithines exclusively by features of the tarsometatarsal and pedal phalanges (toe bones). Unlike in some prehistoric birds, avisaurid tarsometatarsals were not compl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pengornithidae
Pengornithidae is a group of early enantiornithines from the early Cretaceous Period of China, with the putative member '' Falcatakely'' possibly extending this clade's range into the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar, and several putative pengornithids also hail from this formation.O'Connor and Forster, 2010. A Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) avifauna from the Maevarano Formation, Madagascar. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 30(4), 1178-1201. Specimens of these animals have been found both in the Huajiying Formation and Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning and Hebei provinces, dating from the Hauterivian age (130.7 million years ago) to the Aptian age (120 million years ago). Description Pengornithids were basal enantiornithes. They had many small teeth in their jaws, and stout legs. Their internal anatomy was characterized by a hooked outgrowth of the shoulder blade and a pygostyle (the tail bone to which long feathers attach) which was short and rounded, instead of long and blad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enantiornis
''Enantiornis'' is a genus of Enantiornithes. The type and only currently accepted species ''E. leali'' is from the Late Cretaceous Lecho Formation at El Brete, Argentina. It was described from specimen PVL-4035, a coracoid, proximal scapula and proximal humerus found close to each other and suspected to represent the left shoulder of a single individual. Description The genus and the larger group it belongs to, get their name from the reversed scapula-coracoid connection they possess compared to modern birds and the hesperornithids that were their contemporaries: Enanti "opposite", ornis is "bird". Another left shoulder and wing, almost complete and found associated in one lump of rock, as well as a few isolated bones were also assigned to this species mainly based on size. It is among the largest enantiornithines discovered to date, with a length in life of around , hip height of , weight of , and wingspan comparable to herring gulls, around . Its ecological niche res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bohaiornithidae
Bohaiornithidae is a group of early predatory enantiornitheans from the early Cretaceous Period of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation and Yixian Formation, dating to the early Aptian age, 125–120 million years ago. Bohaiornithidae was first coined as a family of enantiornithean birds by Wang and colleagues in 2014. They defined it as the natural group formed by all descendants of the common ancestor of the type species, '' Bohaiornis guoi'', and '' Shenqiornis mengi''.Wang M., Zhou Z.-H., O’Connor, J.K., and Zelenkov, N.V. (2014A new diverse enantiornithine family (Bohaiornithidae fam. nov.) from the Lower Cretaceous of China with information from two new species ''Vertebrata PalAsiatica'', 52(1): 31-76. Description Similar to most enantiornitheans, bohaiornithids possessed teeth rather than a beak as in modern birds, although they could be distinguished from other enantiornitheans due to the structure of their teeth. Their teeth were large, robust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iberomesornis
''Iberomesornis'' ("Spanish intermediate bird") is a monotypic genus of enantiornithine bird of the Cretaceous of Spain. Discovery In 1985 the fossil of ''Iberomesornis'' was discovered by Armando Díaz Romeral in the Early Cretaceous Calizas de La Huérguina Formation at Las Hoyas, Cuenca Province, east central Spain, which dates to the late Barremian, roughly 125 million years ago. The find was first reported in 1988. In 1992 the type species ''Iberomesornis romerali'' was named and described by José Luis Sanz and José Fernando Bonaparte. The generic name is derived from Iberia and Ancient Greek , , "middle", and , , "bird", in reference to the intermediate status between the most basal and the modern birds. The specific name honours Romeral. The holotype specimen, LH-22, part of the Las Hoyas Collection, consists of a compressed articulated partial skeleton of an adult individual lacking the skull, the anterior neck and most of the hands. A second specimen, LH-8200, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gobipteryx Minuta
''Gobipteryx'' (from Gobi eferring to the Gobi Desert where it was first discovered and Greek pteryx “wing”) is a genus of prehistoric bird from the Campanian Age of the Late Cretaceous Period.Elżanowski, A. (1974): Preliminary note on the Palaeognthous bird from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia ''Palaeontologia Polonica'' 30. It is not known to have any direct descendants. Like the rest of the enantiornithes clade, ''Gobipteryx'' is thought to have gone extinct near the end of the Cretaceous.Padian, K. (2004). "Basal Avialae". chptr 11, in Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P. and Osmólska, H. (eds.): ''The Dinosauria'' 2nd Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley . Description Based on a skull length of 45 millimeters, ''Gobipteryx'' has been estimated to be approximately the size of a partridge.Elżanowski, A. (1976): Palaeognathous bird from the Cretaceous of Central Asia ''Nature'' 264: 51-53. Its bones are fibrolamellar.Chinsamy, A., Elżanowski, A. (2001): Bone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hesperornithes
Hesperornithes is an extinct and highly specialized group of aquatic avialans closely related to the ancestors of modern birds. They inhabited both marine and freshwater habitats in the Northern Hemisphere, and include genera such as '' Hesperornis'', '' Parahesperornis'', '' Baptornis'', ''Enaliornis'', and '' Potamornis'', all strong-swimming, predatory divers. Many of the species most specialized for swimming were completely flightless. The largest known hesperornithean, ''Canadaga arctica'', may have reached a maximum adult length of . Hesperornitheans were the only Mesozoic avialans to colonize the oceans. They were wiped out in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, along with enantiornitheans and all other non-avian dinosaurs, and many other diverse plant and animal groups. Anatomy and ecology Most of what is known about this group rests on analyses of single species, as few provide sufficiently complete fossils for analysis. Although some of the smaller and more ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the Latin word for the white limestone known as chalk. The chalk of northern France and the white cliffs of south-eastern England date from the Cretaceous Period. Climate During the Late Cretaceous, the climate was warmer than present, although throughout the period a cooling trend is evident. The tropics became restricted to equatorial regions and northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climatic conditions. Geography Due to plate tectonics, the Americas were gradually moving westward, causing the Atlantic Ocean to expand. The Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia. India maintained a northward course towards Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinornis
''Sinornis'' is a genus of enantiornithean birds from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of the People's Republic of China. When it was described in 1992, this 120 million-year-old sparrow-sized skeleton represented a new avian sharing "primitive" features with '' Archaeopteryx'' as well as showing traits of modern birds. Its basal features include, but are not limited to, a flexible manus with unguals, a footed pubis, and stomach ribs. ''Sinornis'' is known only from the type species, ''Sinornis santensis''. The generic name comes from the Latin ''Sino~'', 'China' and the Greek ''ornis'', 'bird'. The specific name ''santensis'' refers to the provenance from Chaoyang county in Liaoning Province as ''Santa'', meaning "Three Temples", is a traditional name of the county. Description The holotype skeleton of ''Sinornis'', BPV 538a-b, consists of a plate and counterplate of fine-grained freshwater lake sediment as proven by numerous fish, insect, and plant remains.Sereno, P. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesozoic Era
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian reptiles, like the dinosaurs; an abundance of conifers and ferns; a hot greenhouse climate; and the tectonic break-up of Pangaea. The Mesozoic is the middle of the three eras since complex life evolved: the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic, and the Cenozoic. The era began in the wake of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, the largest well-documented mass extinction in Earth's history, and ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, another mass extinction whose victims included the non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, mosasaurs, and plesiosaurs. The Mesozoic was a time of significant tectonic, climatic, and evolutionary activity. The era witnessed the gradual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyril Alexander Walker
Cyril Alexander Walker (8 February 1939 – 6 May 2009) was a British palaeontologist, curator of fossil birds in the Natural History Museum. He was also interested in fossil turtles. book, '' Smithsonian Handbook of Fossils''. He has also contributed to many other books, including ''Garden Birds'', ''Field Guide to British Birds'', ''Birds of the World'', ''Nature Notebooks'', and others. An unidentified moa bone of unknown origin and locality, donated by Dr. C. Walker to ornithologist Zlatozar Boev in 1986, was later identified as the little bush moa (''Anomalopteryx didiformis'').1. Boev, Z. 2018. A specimen of little bush moa Anomalopteryx didiformis (Owen, 1844), Emeidae Bonaparte, 1854 from the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia. – Historia naturalis bulgarica, 32: 3-5. It is the only specimen of Dinornithiformes in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia. References British palaeontologists Britis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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