''Dunhuangia'' is a bird genus, belonging to the

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 cla ...

, which during 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 Pro ...

lived in the area of present

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In 2015, Wang Min,

Li Daqing Li, li, or LI may refer to: Businesses and organizations * Landscape Institute, a British professional body for landscape architects * Leadership Institute, a non-profit organization located in Arlington, Virginia, US, that teaches "political tec ...

, Jingmai Kathleen O'Connor, Zhou Zhonghe and You Hailu named and described the type species ''Dunhuangia cuii''. The generic name refers to the city of

Dunhuang Dunhuang () is a county-level city in Northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Dunhuang was a major ...

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

province. 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 ...

honours preparator Cui Guihia.M. Wang, D. Li, J. K. O'Connor, Z. Zhou and H. You. 2015. "Second species of enantiornithine bird from the Lower Cretaceous Changma Basin, northwestern China with implications for the taxonomic diversity of the Changma avifauna". ''Cretaceous Research'' 55: 56-65 The holotype, GSGM-05-CM-030, was found in the

Changma Basin The East Asian Monsoon is a monsoonal flow that carries moist air from the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean to East Asia. It affects approximately one-third of the global population, influencing the climate of Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, Ch ...

, in a layer of the

Xiagou Formation The Xiagou Formation is the middle strata of the Xinminbao Group. It is named for its type site in Xiagou, in the Changma Basin of Gansu Province, northwestern China and is considered Early Cretaceous in age. It is known outside the specialized ...

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 ago), a ...

. It consists of a partial skeleton lacking the skull. It contains the forelimbs, shoulder girdle and sternum. It is partly articulated. ''Dunhuangia'' is a medium-sized

enantiornithean 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 cl ...

. The describing authors established some autapomorphies, unique derived traits. The rear edge of the sternum has a pair of large notches, equalling over half of the length of the entire element. The coracoid has a deep trough in the top, bordered on the outside by a thick ridge which forms the vertically low outer bone wall of the element. ''Dunhuanagia'' was placed in the Enantiornithes, as sister species of '' Fortunguavis''. It is only the second enantiornithean species named from the Changma Basin of which the bird fauna largely consists of

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 know ...

. This can be explained by the fact that the basin consists of coastal deposits while Enantiornithes are arboreal species.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q30501137 Early Cretaceous birds of Asia Euenantiornitheans