''Dingavis'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

ornithuromorph Euornithes (from Greek ' meaning "true birds") is a natural group which includes the most recent common ancestor of all avialans closer to modern birds than to ''Sinornis''. Description Clarke ''et al''. (2006) found that the most primitive k ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

from the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous ( chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pr ...

of present-day China. It contains a single species, ''D. longimaxilla''.

Discovery and naming

At Sihedang in Liaoning a fossil bird skeleton was excavated. Catalogued as IVPP V20284, it was found in a layer of the

Yixian Formation The Yixian Formation (; formerly transcribed as Yihsien Formation) is a geological formation in Jinzhou, Liaoning, People's Republic of China, that spans the late Barremian and early Aptian stages of the Early Cretaceous. It is known for its ...

dating from the

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ag ...

. It consists of an almost complete and associated skeleton with skull, compressed on a plate. It preserves feather remains at the neck. About forty

gastroliths A gastrolith, also called a stomach stone or gizzard stone, is a rock held inside a gastrointestinal tract. Gastroliths in some species are retained in the muscular gizzard and used to grind food in animals lacking suitable grinding teeth. In othe ...

have been preserved. It represents an adult individual. The specimen was acquired by the

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP; ) of China is a research institution and collections repository for fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaur specimens (many from the Yixian Formation). As its name sugges ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. The piece was prepared by Li Dahang. In 2015 the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

''Dingavis longimaxilla'' was named and described by

Jingmai O'Connor Jingmai Kathleen O'Connor (; born August 26, 1983) is a paleontologist who works as a curator at the Field Museum. Biography O'Connor is from Pasadena, California. Her mother is a geologist. O'Connor says that while she was not a dinosaur enthus ...

, Wang Min and Hu Han. The generic name combines the name of Ding Wenjiang, the "Father of Chinese Geology", with a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

''avis'', "bird". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

is derived from the Latin ''longus'', "long", and ''

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The ...

''.

Description

''Juehuaornis'' has a long beak which equals 63 to 65% of the total skull length. The gastroliths are large, with a diameter of .

Classification

''Juehuaornis'' was placed in the Ornithuromorpha (redefined as a stem-based clade) in 2015. In 2016, it was suggested that ''Dingavis'' might be cogeneric to the closely related genera '' Changzuiornis'' and ''

Juehuaornis ''Juehuaornis'' is an extinct genus of ornithuromorph bird from the Early Cretaceous of present-day China. It contains a single species, ''J. zhangi''. Discovery and naming The holotype, SJG 00001, was found near Lingyuan in a layer of the Jiu ...

'' that might have been found in the same formation, in which case ''Juehuaornis'' would have priority.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q43631517 Cretaceous birds of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2015 Prehistoric euornitheans