A long-tailed, seed-eating bird from the Early Cretaceous of China
Abstract
The lacustrine deposits of the Yixian and Jiufotang Formations in the Early Cretaceous Jehol Group in the western Liaoning area of northeast China are well known for preserving feathered dinosaurs, primitive birds and mammals. Here we report a large basal bird, Jeholornis prima gen. et sp. nov., from the Jiufotang Formation. This bird is distinctively different from other known birds of the Early Cretaceous period in retaining a long skeletal tail with unexpected elongated prezygopophyses and chevrons, resembling that of dromaeosaurids, providing a further link between birds and non-avian theropods. Despite its basal position in early avian evolution, the advanced features of the pectoral girdle and the carpal trochlea of the carpometacarpus of Jeholornis indicate the capability of powerful flight. The dozens of beautifully preserved ovules of unknown plant taxa in the stomach represents direct evidence for seed-eating adaptation in birds of the Mesozoic era.
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The oldest known birds with definitive arboreal adaptations lived approximately 125 million years ago.
“The oldest known birds with definitive arboreal adaptations lived approximately125 million years ago [68].”
From Assessing Arboreal Adaptations of Bird Antecedents: Testing the Ecological Setting of the Origin of the Avian Flight Stroke (2011) · cites this paper as [68]
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“Only a detailed description of the holotype of Shenzhouraptor sinensis is given herein, because the description of the paratype of Shenzhouraptor sinensis has been given by Zhou and Zhang (2002). Skull and mandible: The skull and mandible are relatively poorly preserved.”
BackgroundFirst bird remains from the Upper Cretaceous of the Peirópolis site, Minas Gerais state, Brazil
Candeiro, C., Agnolín, F., Martinelli, A., & Buckup, P. (2012) · Geodiversitas · doi:10.5252/g2012n3a8 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
“— Jeholornis compared to Archaeopteryx, with a new understanding of the earliest avian evolution.”
BackgroundInfluentialThe phenology of sexual reproduction inGinkgo biloba: Ecological and evolutionary implications
Tredici, P. D. (2007) · The Botanical review · doi:10.1663/0006-8101(2007)73[267:tposri]2.0.co;2 · Cited by 18
“More recently, Zhou and Zhang (2002) reported the discovery a long-tailed bird (Jeholornis sp.) from the Early Cretaceous in China with a large number of Ginkgo-like seeds in its crop, direct evidence that early birds potentially could have been involved in seed dispersal activities, although their…”
BackgroundVestigial skeletal structures in dinosaurs
Senter, P. J. (2009) · Journal of Zoology · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2009.00640.x · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Shu'an, J., & Qiang, J. (2007) · Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition · doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.2007.tb00957.x · Cited by 21 · see citing works
The First Mesozoic Heterodactyl Bird from China
Zhang, Zihui, Hou, Lianhai, Hasegawa, Yoshikasu, Jingmai, O'Connor, Larry, Martin, et al. (2006) · Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition · doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.2006.tb00285.x · Cited by 17 · see citing works
“3 Description Over 20 primitive Mesozoic birds have been reported from the Jehol Biota (Hou, 1997; Ji et al., 1999; Zhang et al., 2001; Zhou and Zhang, 2001,2002a, 2003; Hou et al., 1999,2002; Ji, 2003; Gong, 2004; Lli and Hou, 2005; Lii and Ji, 2005).”
BackgroundWu, Q., Bailleul, A. M., Li, Z., O’Connor, J., & Zhou, Z. (2021) · Frontiers in Earth Science · doi:10.3389/feart.2021.617124 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Self-citationBrocklehurst, N., & Field, D. (2021) · iScience · doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.102243 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Mayr, G., Kaye, T. G., Pittman, M., Saitta, E. T., & Pott, C. (2020) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-020-76078-2 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Wang, X., Huang, J.-D., Kundrát, M., Cau, A., Liu, X., Wang, Y., & Ju, S. (2020) · Journal of Asian Earth Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2020.104401 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Decoupling the skull and skeleton in a Cretaceous bird with unique appendicular morphologies
Li, Z., Wang, M., Stidham, T. A., & Zhou, Z. (2023) · Nature Ecology & Evolution · doi:10.1038/s41559-022-01921-w · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Self-citationPerkovsky, E., Sukhomlin, E. B., & Zelenkov, N. (2018) · Cretaceous research (Print) · doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2018.04.002 · Cited by 15
Dyke, G., Wang, X., & Kaiser, G. (2011) · Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences · doi:10.1139/e11-050 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
“The Hornby bones are comparable in size to the large basal bird Sapeornis chaoyangensis (Zhou and Zhang 2002) but are smaller than Patagopteryx deferrariisi (Chiappe 2002).”
BackgroundO'Connor, J. K., Clark, A. D., Herrera, F. A., Yang, X., Wang, X., Zheng, X., Hu, H., & Zhou, Z. (2024) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.012 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
Self-citationWu, Q., O’Connor, J. K., Wang, S., & Zhou, Z. (2024) · PeerJ · doi:10.7717/peerj.16960 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Self-citationWu, Y., Ge, Y., Hu, H., Stidham, T., Li, Z.-H., Bailleul, A. M., & Zhou, Z.-H. (2023) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40311-z · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Self-citationShen, C.-Z., Pêgas, R., Gao, C.-L., Kundrát, M., Zhang, L.-J., Wei, X.-F., & Zhou, X. (2021) · PeerJ · doi:10.7717/peerj.12360 · Cited by 14
Miller, C. V., Pittman, M., Kaye, T. G., Wang, X.-L., Bright, J., & Zheng, X.-T. (2020) · Communications Biology · doi:10.1038/s42003-020-01252-1 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
- Authors
- Zhou, Z., & Zhang, F.
- Affiliations
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Zhou, Zhonghe
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2002-07
- Volume
- 418
- Issue
- 6896
- Pages
- 405-409
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W1983590251
- Cited by
- 274
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 10.27
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Fossil Insects in Amber
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Keywords
- Jehol Group, Lower Cretaceous, basal birds, Jiufotang Formation, Yixian Formation, avian evolution, shoulder girdle, flight ability, fossil birds
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Physiological, Animals, Birds, China, Diet, Biological Evolution, Fossils, Phylogeny, Seeds, Skeleton
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