Confuciusornithidae
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| Confuciusornithids Fossil range: Early Cretaceous |
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 Fossil specimen of Confuciusornis sanctus
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Changchengornis |
Confuciusornithidae is a family of primitive birds from the early Cretaceous Period of China. Recognized species include Confuciusornis sanctus (the type genus and species), Confuciusornis dui, Changchengornis hengdaoziensis (which lived in the same time and region as Confuciusornis), Jinzhouornis yixianensis, Jinzhouornis zhangjiyingia, and Eoconfuciusornis zhengi, the last of which predated the other confuciusornithids by 11 million years. About half of all the confuciusornithid specimens, including reprersentatives of all species, that have preserved feathers possess a pair of distinctive ribbon-like tail feathers,[1] and possessed both shafted and non-shafted (downy) feathers.[2]
The family Confuciusornithidae was first named by Hou et al. in 1995 to contain the type genus, Confuciusornis, and assigned to the order Confuciusornithiformes within class Aves.[3] The group was given a phylogenetic definition by Chiappe et al. in 1999, who defined a node-based clade Confuciusornithidae to include only Changchengornis and Confuciusornis. Sereno (2005) expanded this definition to include all species closer to Confuciusornis sanctus than to the modern House Sparrow, Passer domesticus.[4] Jinzhouornis was added to the Confuciusornithidae by Hou, Zhou, and Zhang in 2002,[5], and in 2008, Zhang, Zhou and Benton assigned the newly described genus Eoconfuciusornis to the family.[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Chiappe, Luis M., Shu-An, Ji, Qiang, Ji, Norell, Mark A. (1999) "Anatomy and systematics of the Confuciusornithidae (Theropoda:Aves) from the Late Mesozoic of northeastern China" "Bulletin of the American museum of Natural History no.242 89pp.
- ^ a b Zhang, F.-C., Zhou, Z.-H., and Benton, M.J. (2008). "A primitive confuciusornithid bird from China and its implications for early avian flight." Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences, 51(5): 625-639.
- ^ Hou, L., Zhou, Z., Gu, Y., and Zhang, H. (1995). "[Description of Confuciusornis sanctus]." Chinese Science Bulletin, 10: 61-63.
- ^ * Sereno, P. C. 2005. Stem Archosauria—TaxonSearch [version 1.0, 2005 November 7]
- ^ Hou, L.H., Zhou, Z.H., Zhang, F.C., et al. (2002). Mesozoic Birds from Western Liaoning in China. Shenyang: Liaoning Science and Technology Publishing House, 2002.
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