''Pengornis'' is the largest known

enantiornithine 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 ...

bird 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 ...

of northeast China. The name derives from "Peng", which refers to a mythological bird from Chinese folklore, and "-ornis", which means bird in Greek. ''Pengornis'' is known from a single adult fossil, described by Zhou et al. in 2008. This

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

is in the collection of the

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP; ) of China is a research institution and collections repository for fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaur specimens (many from the Yixian Formation). As its name suggest ...

in Beijing China. Its accession number is IVPP V15336. It was collected from the

Jiufotang Formation The Jiufotang Formation (Chinese: 九佛堂组, pinyin: ''jiǔfótáng zǔ'') is an Early Cretaceous geological formation in Chaoyang, Liaoning which has yielded fossils of feathered dinosaurs, primitive birds, pterosaurs, and other organisms (see ...

, at Dapingfang, Chaoyang, Liaoning China. A second, juvenile specimen was described by Hu, Zhou, and O'Connor in 2014.Hu, H. ''et al''. (2014) A subadult specimen of ''Pengornis'' and character evolution in Enantiornithes. ''Vertebrata PalAsiatica''. 52: 77–97. ''Pengornis'' shows characters of the humeral head, acromion, and anterior cervical vertebrae, that were previously known only in members of the

Ornithurae Ornithurae (meaning "bird tails" in Greek) is a natural group which includes the common ancestor of ''Ichthyornis'', ''Hesperornis'', and all modern birds as well as all other descendants of that common ancestor. Classification Ernst Haeckel coi ...

. A phylogenetic analysis by Zhou et al. reduces to just three the number of characters that support enantiornithine monophyly. Thus, Pengornis supports the possibility that

s and

Ornithurines Ornithurae (meaning "bird tails" in Greek) is a natural group which includes the common ancestor of ''Ichthyornis'', ''Hesperornis'', and all modern birds as well as all other descendants of that common ancestor. Classification Ernst Haeckel coi ...

may not be distinct clades.Zhou, Z. ''et al''. (2008) Insight into diversity, body size and morphological evolution from the largest Early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird. ''Journal of Anatomy'', 212, pp565–577.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q14947755 Bird genera Early Cretaceous birds of Asia Enantiornitheans Fossil taxa described in 2008