Songlingornithidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

of basal

euornithean 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 ...

s 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 ...

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 ...

. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation and the Yixian Formation, dating to the early

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 129.4 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma). It is a subdivision of the Early Cretaceous Epoch (or Lower Cretaceous Series). It is preceded ...

and

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 ...

ages, 125–120 million years ago. The family Songlingornithidae was first named by Hou in 1997 to contain the type genus, ''

Songlingornis ''Songlingornis'' is a prehistoric bird genus from the Early Cretaceous. Its fossils have been found in the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning (PRC). The age of these rocks is somewhat disputed, but probably around the early Aptian, 125-120 million ...

''.Hou, (1997). ''Mesozoic Birds of China''. Taiwan Provincial Feng Huang Ku Bird Park. Taiwan: Nan Tou. 228 pp. Clarke et al. (2006) was the first to find a close relationship between ''Songlingornis'' and the "yanornithids".Clarke, Zhou and Zhang, (2006). "Insight into the evolution of avian flight from a new clade of Early Cretaceous ornithurines from China and the morphology of ''Yixianornis grabaui''." ''Journal of Anatomy'', 208: 287-308. The name was originally coined to reflect a close relationship between the two supposedly similar (but poorly preserved) genera ''Songlingornis'' and ''

Chaoyangia ''Chaoyangia'' is an extinct genus of euornithean birds, containing the single species ''Chaoyangia beishanensis''. This species is known from a single fossil specimen consisting of a partial skeleton including vertebra, ribs, hips, and upper le ...

''. However, subsequent studies found that ''Chaoyangia'' was probably not closely related to ''Songlingornis''. Instead, ''Songlingornis'' was found to be closely related to another group which had been given the name Yanornithidae—the name Songlingornithidae, having been named first, took precedence.O'Connor, J.K. and Zhou Z. (2012). "A redescription of ''Chaoyangia beishanensis'' (Aves) and a comprehensive phylogeny of Mesozoic birds." ''Journal of Systematic Palaeontology'', (advance online publication). Some later studies have also placed the

hongshanornithid 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, ''Longic ...

s in this group. At least one study has found the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

Mongolian avialan '' Hollanda'' to be a member of the group as well.

Phylogeny

Below is a cladogram from Mayr (2017) showing the relationships between Songlingornithidae and other

ornithuromorph 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 ...

s: A 2020 study by Wang ''et al.'' failed to recover a monophyletic Songlingornithidae, instead finding ''Yanornis'' to form a clade with the newly described genera '' Abitusavis'' and '' Similiyanornis'', for which the name Yanornithidae was used:

References

Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Prehistoric dinosaur families {{Theropod-stub