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Longipterygids
Longipterygidae is a family of early enantiornithean avialans from the Early Cretaceous epoch of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation and Yixian Formation, dating to the early Aptian age, 125-120 million years ago. Description Longipterygids are characterized by an extremely long, toothed snout (making up over 60% of the total skull length), in which the teeth are restricted to the tips of the jaws. The snouts were straight but slightly concave at a point behind the nostrils, and the bones of the snout tip were solid. Their pygostyles, the series of fused vertebrae in the tail, were unusually large, and longer than the foot bones. The feet of longipterygids were also specialized relative to other enantiornitheans. Where most enantiornitheans had a long middle toe with a "knuckle" (trochlea) that extended beyond the outer two, the toes of longipterygids were even in length, and attached to the rest of the foot at the same level. This configuration is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longipterygid Skulls
Longipterygidae is a family of early enantiornithean avialans from the Early Cretaceous epoch of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation and Yixian Formation, dating to the early Aptian age, 125-120 million years ago. Description Longipterygids are characterized by an extremely long, toothed snout (making up over 60% of the total skull length), in which the teeth are restricted to the tips of the jaws. The snouts were straight but slightly concave at a point behind the nostrils, and the bones of the snout tip were solid. Their pygostyles, the series of fused vertebrae in the tail, were unusually large, and longer than the foot bones. The feet of longipterygids were also specialized relative to other enantiornitheans. Where most enantiornitheans had a long middle toe with a "knuckle" (trochlea) that extended beyond the outer two, the toes of longipterygids were even in length, and attached to the rest of the foot at the same level. This configuration is also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longipterygids
Longipterygidae is a family of early enantiornithean avialans from the Early Cretaceous epoch of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation and Yixian Formation, dating to the early Aptian age, 125-120 million years ago. Description Longipterygids are characterized by an extremely long, toothed snout (making up over 60% of the total skull length), in which the teeth are restricted to the tips of the jaws. The snouts were straight but slightly concave at a point behind the nostrils, and the bones of the snout tip were solid. Their pygostyles, the series of fused vertebrae in the tail, were unusually large, and longer than the foot bones. The feet of longipterygids were also specialized relative to other enantiornitheans. Where most enantiornitheans had a long middle toe with a "knuckle" (trochlea) that extended beyond the outer two, the toes of longipterygids were even in length, and attached to the rest of the foot at the same level. This configuration is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longipteryx
''Longipteryx'' is a genus of prehistoric bird which lived during the Early Cretaceous (Aptian stage, 120.3 million years ago). It contains a single species, ''Longipteryx chaoyangensis''. Its remains have been recovered from the Jiufotang Formation at Chaoyang in Liaoning Province, China. Apart from the holotype IVPP V 12325 - a fine and nearly complete skeleton — another entire skeleton (IPPV V 12552) and some isolated bones (a humerus and furcula, specimens IPPV V 12553, and an ulna, IPPV V 12554) are known to date. The name ''Longipteryx'' means "one with long feathers", from Latin ''longus'', "long" + Ancient Greek ''pteryx'' (πτέρυξ), "wing", "feather" or "pinion". The specific name ''chaoyangensis'' is from the Latin for "from Chaoyang". Description Excluding the tail, ''Longipteryx'' was some 15 cm long overall in life. It had a long bill — longer than the rest of the head — with a few hooked teeth at the tip, and, as the name implies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longipteryx Chaoyangensis
''Longipteryx'' is a genus of prehistoric bird which lived during the Early Cretaceous (Aptian stage, 120.3 million years ago). It contains a single species, ''Longipteryx chaoyangensis''. Its remains have been recovered from the Jiufotang Formation at Chaoyang in Liaoning Province, China. Apart from the holotype IVPP V 12325 - a fine and nearly complete skeleton — another entire skeleton (IPPV V 12552) and some isolated bones (a humerus and furcula, specimens IPPV V 12553, and an ulna, IPPV V 12554) are known to date. The name ''Longipteryx'' means "one with long feathers", from Latin ''longus'', "long" + Ancient Greek ''pteryx'' (πτέρυξ), "wing", "feather" or "pinion". The specific name ''chaoyangensis'' is from the Latin for "from Chaoyang". Description Excluding the tail, ''Longipteryx'' was some 15 cm long overall in life. It had a long bill — longer than the rest of the head — with a few hooked teeth at the tip, and, as the name implies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rapaxavis
''Rapaxavis'' a genus of enantiornithine bird. It has been found in the Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, People's Republic of China. In 2006 a specimen was reported, discovered by Pan Lijun at Xiaioyugou near the town of Lianhe, and referred to '' Longirostravis''. In 2009 this specimen was named and described as the type species ''Rapaxavis pani'' by Eric M. Morschhauser, David Varricchio, Gao Chunling, Liu Jinyuan, Wang Xuri, Cheng Xiadong and Meng Qingjin. The generic name combines the Latin ''rapax'', "grasping", with ''avis'', "bird", in reference to the special grasping function of the foot. The specific name honours Pan as discoverer. It is also an allusion to Pan, the god of the forests, because the species was assumed to have been arboreal. The holotype, DMNH D2522, was found in a layer of the Jiufotang Formation dating from the early Albian. It consists of a nearly complete skeleton with skull, on a slab. When the slab was split from its counterplate, the bones did ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longirostravis
''Longirostravis'' is a genus of enantiornithean birds which existed during the early Cretaceous period (around 125 million years ago) and is known from fossils found in the middle or upper Yixian Formation in Yixian County, People's Republic of China. It is known from a single specimen housed in the collections of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (specimen number IVPP V 11309) representing the type species ''Longirostravis hani''. Based on this specimen, ''L. hani'' appears to have been a "quail-sized" bird with a long, tapering and slightly curved snout tipped with five pairs of small, conical teeth. The long, narrow snout may have been used for mud probing, an ecology similar to modern oystercatchers. ''L. hani'' had an unusually-shaped breast bone (sternum) with a pair of three-pronged projections shaped somewhat like moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shanweiniao
''Shanweiniao'' is a genus of long-snouted enantiornithean birds from Early Cretaceous China. One species is known, ''Shanweiniao cooperorum''. There is one known fossil, a slab and counterslab. The fossil is in the collection of the Dalian Natural History Museum, and has accession number DNHM D1878/1 and DNHM1878/2. It was collected from the Lower Cretaceous Dawangzhengzi Beds, middle Yixian Formation, from Lingyuan in the Liaoning Province, China. O'Connor et al. (2010) found that ''Shanweiniao'' is a close relative of ''Longipteryx'', ''Longirostravis'', and ''Rapaxavis'', which together form a clade of long-beaked enantiornithean birds, the Longipterygidae. The genus name ''Shanweiniao'' () means "fan-tailed bird" in Chinese. The authors report that ''Shanweiniao'' is the only known enantiornithean bird with a tail surface capable of generating lift, as in modern birds. They also report that only one other Mesozoic bird, '' Yixianornis grabaui'', which is a basal ornithur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evgenavis
''Evgenavis'' (named after the Russian paleontologist Evgeny Kurochkin) is a genus of extinct basal bird that lived from the Barremian to the Aptian. The type specimen ZIN PH 1/154 is an isolated tarsometatarsus found in the Ilek Formation (Shestakovo locality), Western Siberia. ''Evgenavis'' may have been the only confuciusornithiform known outside the Jehol Biota, although there is also the possibility that it could have been a different type of avialan, such as an enantiornithean or a relative of ''Vorona''. A cladogram A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to d ... within a 2019 study involving a wide range of theropods included ''Evgenavis'' as a longipterygid.Hartman, Scott; Mortimer, Mickey; Wahl, William R.; Lomax, Dean R.; Lippincott, Jessica; Lovelace, David M. (201 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camptodontornis
''Camptodontornis'' is an extinct genus of enantiornithine bird which existed in what is now Chaoyang in Liaoning Province, China during the early Cretaceous period (Aptian age). It is known from a well-preserved skeleton including a skull found in the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning Province. Its original generic name was "Camptodontus" (meaning "bent tooth"); it was named by Li Li, En-pu Gong, Li-dong Zhang, Ya-jun Yang and Lian-hai Hou in 2010. However, the name had previously been used for a genus of beetle (Dejean, 1826).Dejean, (1826). Spec. gén. Coléopt., 2, 476. The type species is "Camptodontus" ''yangi''. Demirjian (2019) coined a replacement generic name ''Camptodontornis''. The status of ''C. yangi'' as a distinct species is disputed, with Wang ''et al.'' (2015) considering it to be a probable synonym of ''Longipteryx ''Longipteryx'' is a genus of prehistoric bird which lived during the Early Cretaceous (Aptian stage, 120.3 million years ago). It contains a sing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boluochia
''Boluochia zhengi'' was an enantiornithine bird. It lived during the Early Cretaceous in the time span 121.6-110.6 mya ( late Aptian- early Albian) and is known from fossils found in the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning province, People's Republic of China. ''Boluochia'' was first described by Zhou in 1995.Zhou, 1995. "Discovery of a New Enantiornithine Bird from the Cretaceous of Liaoning, China". PalAsiatica 33(2):99-113 A re-analysis of the specimen by Jingmai O'Connor and colleagues found that it was closely related to ''Longipteryx'' and could be assigned to the family Longipterygidae Longipterygidae is a family of early enantiornithean avialans from the Early Cretaceous epoch of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation and Yixian Formation, dating to the early Aptian age, 125-120 million years ago. Descri ....O'Connor, J.K., Zhou Z. and Zhang F. (In press). "A reappraisal of ''Boluochia zhengi'' (Aves: Enantiornithes) and a discussion of intraclade di ... [...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] |
Cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to descendants, nor does it show how much they have changed, so many differing evolutionary trees can be consistent with the same cladogram. A cladogram uses lines that branch off in different directions ending at a clade, a group of organisms with a last common ancestor. There are many shapes of cladograms but they all have lines that branch off from other lines. The lines can be traced back to where they branch off. These branching off points represent a hypothetical ancestor (not an actual entity) which can be inferred to exhibit the traits shared among the terminal taxa above it. This hypothetical ancestor might then provide clues about the order of evolution of various features, adaptation, and other evolutionary narratives about ance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
