''Omnivoropteryx'' (meaning "omnivorous wing") is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of primitive flying

avialan Avialae ("bird wings") is a clade containing the only living dinosaurs, the birds, and their closest relatives. It is usually defined as all theropod dinosaurs more closely related to birds (Aves) than to deinonychosaurs, though alternative defi ...

from the early

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

Upper

Jiufotang Formation The Jiufotang Formation () is an Early Cretaceous geological formation in Chaoyang, Liaoning which has yielded fossils of feathered dinosaurs, primitive birds, pterosaurs, and other organisms (see Jehol Biota). It is a member of the Jehol group. T ...

of China. The authors who described ''Omnivoropteryx'', Stephen Czerkas and Qiang Ji, stated that their specimen closely resembles ''

Sapeornis ''Sapeornis'' is a monotypic genus of avialan dinosaurs which lived during the early Cretaceous period ( late Barremian to early Aptian, roughly 125-120 mya). ''Sapeornis'' contains only one species, ''Sapeornis chaoyangensis''. Description ...

'', but the pubis was longer and, since no skull was known for ''Sapeornis'', they did not consider the two names synonyms.Czerkas, S. A. & Ji, Q. (2002). "A preliminary report on an omnivorous volant bird from northeast China." ''In'': Czerkas, S. J. (editor): ''Feathered Dinosaurs and the origin of flight. The Dinosaur Museum Journal'' 1: 127-135
HTML abstract
/ref> The later discovery of ''Sapeornis'' skulls shows that they were indeed similar to ''Omnivoropteryx''. This may make ''Omnivoropteryx'' a junior synonym of ''

'', and the name may be abandoned.Zhou, Z., and Zhang, F. (2003). "Anatomy of the primitive bird ''Sapeornis chaoyangensis'' from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning, China". "Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences", 40: 731-747.

Classification

Czerkas and Ji created the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Omnivoropterygidae Omnivoropterygidae (meaning "omnivorous wings") is a family of primitive avialan dinosaurs known exclusively from the Jiufotang Formation of China, though putative omnivoropterygids are known from the Maevarano Formation of the Maastrichtian of ...

to contain the genus ''Omnivoropteryx'', as well as the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Omnivoropterygiformes Omnivoropterygidae (meaning "omnivorous wings") is a family of primitive avialan dinosaurs known exclusively from the Jiufotang Formation of China, though putative omnivoropterygids are known from the Maevarano Formation of the Maastrichtian of M ...

, though some scientists do not recognize taxa that contain only one genus.

Paul Sereno Paul Callistus Sereno (born October 11, 1957) is a professor of paleontology at the University of Chicago who has discovered several new dinosaur species on several continents, including at sites in Inner Mongolia, Argentina, Morocco and Niger. ...

, for example, considered the family Omnivoropterygidae to be invalid because it is redundant and was not given a

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

definition.Sereno, P. C. (2005).
Omnivoropterygidae
." Stem Archosauria—TaxonSearch ersion 1.0, 7 November 2005/ref> The single species ''O. sinousaorum'' shows an interesting mix of specialized and generalized characters: the legs were short and well suited for perching on branches, while the wings were long, suggesting it did not need a running or jumping takeoff to get into the air. Its skull, on the other hand, was similar to some early

oviraptorosaur Oviraptorosaurs ("egg thief lizards") are a group of feathered maniraptoran dinosaurs from the Cretaceous Period of what are now Asia and North America. They are distinct for their characteristically short, beaked, parrot-like skulls, with or wi ...

s, having the structure of a beak designed for crushing and tearing with some teeth at the tip of the upper jaw. Thus, the species may have been an opportunistic omnivore (as the name suggests), utilizing a wide range of food sources, unlike other early birds which were active predators of smaller animals.

References

{{Authority control Omnivoropterygidae Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Jiufotang fauna Fossil taxa described in 2002 Dinosaurs of China