The oldest record of ornithuromorpha from the early cretaceous of China.
Ornithuromorpha is the most inclusive clade containing extant birds but not the Mesozoic Enantiornithes. The early evolutionary history of this avian clade has been advanced with recent discoveries from Cretaceous deposits, indicating that Ornithuromorpha and Enantiornithes are the two major avian groups in Mesozoic. Here we report on a new ornithuromorph bird, Archaeornithura meemannae gen. et sp. nov., from the second oldest avian-bearing deposits (130.7 Ma) in the world. The new taxon is referable to the Hongshanornithidae and constitutes the oldest record of the Ornithuromorpha. However, A. meemannae shows few primitive features relative to younger hongshanornithids and is deeply nested within the Hongshanornithidae, suggesting that this clade is already well established. The new discovery extends the record of Ornithuromorpha by five to six million years, which in turn pushes back the divergence times of early avian lingeages into the Early Cretaceous.
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
Min
M
Wang
Institue of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi, Shandong 276000, China.|Tianyu Natural History Museum of Shandong, Pingyi, Shandong 273300, China.
Xiaoting
X
Zheng
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
Jingmai K
JK
O'Connor
Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2019, Australia.
Graeme T
GT
Lloyd
Institue of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi, Shandong 276000, China.|Tianyu Natural History Museum of Shandong, Pingyi, Shandong 273300, China.
Xiaoli
X
Wang
Institue of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi, Shandong 276000, China.|Tianyu Natural History Museum of Shandong, Pingyi, Shandong 273300, China.
Yan
Y
Wang
Institue of Geology and Paleontology, Linyi University, Linyi, Shandong 276000, China.|Tianyu Natural History Museum of Shandong, Pingyi, Shandong 273300, China.
Xiaomei
X
Zhang
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
Zhonghe
Z
Zhou
D000818:Animals; D001717:Birds / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification; D002681:China; D005580:Fossils; D010163:Paleontology; D010802:Phylogeny; D013997:Time Factors