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Hongshanornis
''Hongshanornis'' is a genus of ornithuromorph birds known from early Cretaceous lake deposits of the Yixian Formation, Inner Mongolia, China. The holotype specimen, recovered in 2005, is currently held by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. It was found in the Jianshangou fossil beds, dated to 124.6 million years ago. Three additional specimens have been reported, though only one of those has been definitively identified as belonging to ''Hongshanornis''. This latter specimen was found in the Dawangzhangzi fossil beds, which are about 122 million years old. ''Hongshanornis'' is a member of the group Hongshanornithidae, to which it lent its name. It is closely related to ''Longicrusavis'', which existed alongside ''Hongshanornis'' in the Dawangzhangzi ecosystem, and is very similar to the later '' Parahongshanornis'' from the Jiufotang Formation. Description ''Hongshanornis longicresta'' was a small species, especially compared to other earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hongshanornis
''Hongshanornis'' is a genus of ornithuromorph birds known from early Cretaceous lake deposits of the Yixian Formation, Inner Mongolia, China. The holotype specimen, recovered in 2005, is currently held by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. It was found in the Jianshangou fossil beds, dated to 124.6 million years ago. Three additional specimens have been reported, though only one of those has been definitively identified as belonging to ''Hongshanornis''. This latter specimen was found in the Dawangzhangzi fossil beds, which are about 122 million years old. ''Hongshanornis'' is a member of the group Hongshanornithidae, to which it lent its name. It is closely related to ''Longicrusavis'', which existed alongside ''Hongshanornis'' in the Dawangzhangzi ecosystem, and is very similar to the later '' Parahongshanornis'' from the Jiufotang Formation. Description ''Hongshanornis longicresta'' was a small species, especially compared to other earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hongshanornis Wingspan
''Hongshanornis'' is a genus of ornithuromorph birds known from early Cretaceous lake deposits of the Yixian Formation, Inner Mongolia, China. The holotype specimen, recovered in 2005, is currently held by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. It was found in the Jianshangou fossil beds, dated to 124.6 million years ago. Three additional specimens have been reported, though only one of those has been definitively identified as belonging to ''Hongshanornis''. This latter specimen was found in the Dawangzhangzi fossil beds, which are about 122 million years old. ''Hongshanornis'' is a member of the group Hongshanornithidae, to which it lent its name. It is closely related to ''Longicrusavis'', which existed alongside ''Hongshanornis'' in the Dawangzhangzi ecosystem, and is very similar to the later ''Parahongshanornis'' from the Jiufotang Formation. Description ''Hongshanornis longicresta'' was a small species, especially compared to other early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hongshanornithidae
Hongshanornithidae is an extinct group of early ornithuromorph birds from the early Cretaceous period of China. It includes the genera '' Hongshanornis'' (the type genus) and '' Tianyuornis'' from the Yixian Formation of Inner Mongolia, ''Longicrusavis'' from the Yixian Formation of Liaoning Province, '' Parahongshanornis'' from the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning Province, and '' Archaeornithura'', the oldest known member, from the Huajiying Formation of Hebei Province. Description Hongshanornithids were small, approximately the size of modern phoebes. Their legs are proportionally long in comparison to the wings, suggesting that they were aquatic wading birds. They most likely lacked beaks and had teeth in their jaws. Classification Hongshanornithidae was defined as a node-based clade including the last common ancestor of ''Hongshanornis longicresta'' and ''Longicrusavis houi'' plus all its descendants. Beginning in 2012, several studies began to find that the hongshano ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longicrusavis
''Longicrusavis'' (meaning "long shin bird" in Latin) is an extinct genus of basal ornithuromorph bird found only at Dawangzhangzi village in Liaoning Province, China. ''Longicrusavis'' was a ground dwelling carnivore, a wader, and part of biological family Hongshanornithidae, considered to have been a dominant species in the Jehol Biota, the prehistoric Chinese ecosystem which supported them. The name Hongshanornithidae represents one of China's oldest recorded cultures in the region, the Hongshan culture. Description ''Longicrusavis'' is a ground dwelling carnivore known from the holotype specimen PKUP V1069, found from the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation in Liaoning Province, China., which consists of shale slab and counter slab. The skeleton is nearly complete and belongs to an adult individual, with carbonized feathers preserved in full plumage with visible colouration around the head and forelimbs. Like the closely related genus '' Hongshanornis'', ''Longicrusavis'' ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ornithuromorpha
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 known euornithians (the Yanornithiformes) had a mosaic of advanced and primitive features. These species retained primitive features like gastralia and a pubic symphysis. They also showed the first fully modern pygostyles, and the type specimen of ''Yixianornis'' (IVPP 13631) preserves eight elongated rectrices (tail feathers) in a modern arrangement. No earlier pygostylians are known which preserve a fan of tail feathers of this sort; instead, they showed only paired plumes or a tuft of short feathers. Classification The name Euornithes has been used for a wide variety of avialan groups since it was first named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1889. It was first defined as a clade in 1998 by Paul Sereno, who made it the group of all animals close ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eogranivora
''Eogranivora'' is a bird genus, belonging to the Ornithuromorpha, that lived in the area of present-day China during the Early Cretaceous. Its type species is ''Eogranivora edentulata''.Zheng X., O’Connor J.K., Wang X., Wang Y., Zhou Z. 2018. "Reinterpretation of a previously described Jehol bird clarifies early trophic evolution in the Ornithuromorpha". ''Proceedings of the Royal Society B'' 285: 20172494 In 2011, a bird fossil, specimen STM35-3 found at Dawangzhangzi, was referred to '' Hongshanornis''.Zheng X-T., Martin L.D., Zhou Z-H., Burnham D.A., Zhang F-C., Miao D. 2011 "Fossil evidence of avian crops from the Early Cretaceous of China". ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. USA'' 108: 15 904–15 907 Subsequently, that genus was proven to possess teeth, while STM35-3 is toothless. Additional research showed that the latter represented a species new to science. In 2018, the type species ''Eogranivora edentulata'' was named and described by Zheng Xiaotin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parahongshanornis
''Parahongshanornis'' is an extinct genus of early bird from the lower Cretaceous (Aptian stage) of what is now Liaoning Province, north-eastern China. ''Parahongshanornis'' was first named by Li Li, Wang Jingqi and Hou Shilin in 2011 and the type species is ''Parahongshanornis chaoyangensis''. The generic name refers to an assumed close relationship with ''Hongshanornis''. The specific name refers to Chaoyang. ''Parahongshanornis'' is known from the holotype PMOL-AB00161, which was found near Yuanjiawa, Chaoyang, in the middle Aptian Jiufotang Formation of the Jehol Biota, about 120 million years old. It consists of a nearly complete and articulated skeleton missing the skull but showing remains of the soft parts of the body, including some feathering. Most of the vertebral column is obscured by the sternum and pelvis. ''Parahongshanornis'' is a small species with a femur length of twenty-four millimetres. The furcula is U-shaped. The coracoid is elongated but with a br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pygostyle
Pygostyle describes a skeletal condition in which the final few caudal vertebrae are fused into a single ossification, supporting the tail feathers and musculature. In modern birds, the rectrices attach to these. The pygostyle is the main component of the uropygium, a structure colloquially known as the bishop's nose, parson's nose, pope's nose, or sultan's nose. This is the fleshy protuberance visible at the posterior end of a bird (most commonly a chicken or turkey) that has been dressed for cooking. It has a swollen appearance because it also contains the uropygial gland that produces preen oil. Evolution Pygostyles probably began to evolve very early in the Cretaceous period, perhaps 140 – 130 million years ago. The earliest known species to have evolved a pygostyle were members of the Confuciusornithidae. The structure provided an evolutionary advantage, as a completely mobile tail as found in species such as '' Archaeopteryx'' is detrimental to its use for flight contro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crop (anatomy)
A crop (sometimes also called a croup or a craw, ingluvies, or sublingual pouch) is a thin-walled expanded portion of the alimentary tract used for the storage of food prior to digestion. This anatomical structure is found in a wide variety of animals. It has been found in birds, and in invertebrate animals including gastropods (snails and slugs), earthworms, leeches, and insects. Insects Cropping is used by bees to temporarily store nectar of flowers. When bees "suck" nectar, it is stored in their crops. Other Hymenoptera also use crops to store liquid food. The crop in eusocial insects, such as ants, has specialized to be distensible, and this specialization enables important communication between colonial insects through trophallaxis. The crop can be found in the foregut of insects. Birds In a bird's digestive system, the crop is an expanded, muscular pouch near the gullet or throat. It is a part of the digestive tract, essentially an enlarged part of the esophagus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gastrolith
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 other species the rocks are ingested and pass through the digestive system and are frequently replaced. The grain size depends upon the size of the animal and the gastrolith's role in digestion. Other species use gastroliths as ballast.Rondeau, et aLarval Anurans Adjust Buoyancy in Response to Substrate IngestionCopeia: February 2005, Vol. 2005, No. 1, pp. 188-195. Particles ranging in size from sand to cobble have been documented. Etymology Gastrolith comes from the Greek γαστήρ (''gastēr''), meaning "stomach", and λίθος (''lithos''), meaning "stone". Occurrence Among living vertebrates, gastroliths are common among crocodiles, alligators, herbivorous birds, seals and sea lions. Domestic fowl require access to ''grit''. Stone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archaeorhynchus
''Archaeorhynchus'' (meaning "ancient snout") is a genus of beaked avialan stem-birds from the early Cretaceous period. A fossil of its only known species, ''Archaeorhynchus spathula'', was first reported in 2005 by Zhou & Zhang to have been found in Yixian Formation rocks at Yixian, Liaoning province, China, showing a well-preserved and essentially complete skeleton. Two more complete specimens were found in Lower Cretaceous deposits of Jianchang, Liaoning, northeastern China, preserving new anatomical information. These deposits are 120 million years old, whereas the original specimen was 125 million years old, meaning the age range for this species is 125-120Ma. ''Archaeorhychus'' is one of the earliest avialans known to have had a beak, and represents one of the most basal ornithuromorph avialans. The fossils preserved feathers associated with the neck, head and tail regions. The fossils also show grooves and openings/ holes (foramina) on the tips of the upper and lower jaw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
