Jinguofortisidae is an extinct family of early pygostylian avialans known 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 Pro ...

, found in northern China.

Description

The Jinguofortisidae are distinguished from other non- ornithothoracine avialans by the following features: the scapula and coracoid fused into a scapulocoracoid; a boomeranged-shaped furcula without a hypocleidium; proximal margin of

humerus The humerus (; ) is a long bone in the arm that runs from the shoulder to the elbow. It connects the scapula and the two bones of the lower arm, the radius and ulna, and consists of three sections. The humeral upper extremity consists of a roun ...

concave centrally; deltopectoral crest large and not perforated; minor metacarpal markedly bowed caudally; alular digit terminating at the level of the distal end of major metacarpal; and proximal phalanx of the major digit longer than the intermediate phalanx.

Phylogeny

Wang et al. (2018) erected Jinguofortisidae after finding ''

Chongmingia ''Chongmingia'' is a genus of basal Avialae, avialan belonging to Pygostylia that lived during the Aptian. It was found in the Jiufotang Formation in Chaoyang, Liaoning, Chaoyang, China, and was described by Wang ''et al''., 2016. The name comes ...

'' (previously considered Avebrevicauda ''incertae sedis'' by Wang et al. 2016) to be sister to their new taxon ''Jinguofortis''. In 2023, a third jinguofortisid was described by Li ''et al''. They recovered their new taxon, ''

Cratonavis ''Cratonavis'' (meaning "Craton bird") is an extinct genus of pygostylian avialian from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning Province, China. The genus contains a single species, ''C. zhui'', known from a complete skeleton. ...

'', as the sister taxon to ''Chongmingia''. The results of their phylogenetic analyses are shown in the cladogram below:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q60790769 Prehistoric avialans Prehistoric dinosaur families Early Cretaceous birds of Asia Valanginian first appearances Early Cretaceous extinctions