A beaked basal ornithurine bird (Aves, Ornithurae) from the Lower Cretaceous of China
Abstract
We report here one of the earliest known beaked ornithurine birds from the Lower Cretaceous deposits in Liaoning, northeast China. The new basal ornithurine, Archaeorhynchus spathula gen. et sp. nov., has a rhynchokinetic skull with toothless jaws. It also contains over three dozen preserved gizzard stones, suggesting an herbivorous diet. The distal end of the tibiotarsus is unfused, enabling recognition of the astragalus with a broad ascending process, generally similar to that of Archaeopteryx. The new discovery sheds new light on our understanding of the early radiation and diet diversification of early birds in the Lower Cretaceous.
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Advanced ornithurans with musculoskeletal morphologies indicative of powerful flight comparable to extant birds occur at least 50 million years before the oldest known neornithine.
“Advanced ornithurans, which have musculoskeletal morphologies indicative of powerful flight comparable to extant birds [5], [108], [109] occur at least 50 million years before the oldest known neornithine [110], [111].”
From Assessing Arboreal Adaptations of Bird Antecedents: Testing the Ecological Setting of the Origin of the Avian Flight Stroke (2011) · cites this paper as [109]
Cites
The theropod ancestry of birds: new evidence from the late cretaceous of madagascar
Forster, C. A., Sampson, S. D., Chiappe, L. M., & Krause, D. W. (1998) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.279.5358.1915 · Cited by 314 · cited 2× · see citing works
“4), very similar to those of Archaeopteryx (Wellnhofer 1992; Mayr et al. 2005), Rahonavis (Forster et al. 1998) and Jeholornis (Zhou & Zhang 2002), but it lacks a high narrow pretibial bone associated primarily with the calcaneum as in neognathous birds (Martin et al. 1980; McGowan 1984).”
BackgroundA Well-Preserved <i>Archaeopteryx</i> Specimen with Theropod Features
Mayr, G., Pohl, B., & Peters, D. S. (2005) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1120331 · Cited by 132 · cited 8× · see citing works
“4), very similar to those of Archaeopteryx (Wellnhofer 1992; Mayr et al. 2005), Rahonavis (Forster et al. 1998) and Jeholornis (Zhou & Zhang 2002), but it lacks a high narrow pretibial bone associated primarily with the calcaneum as in neognathous birds (Martin et al. 1980; McGowan 1984).”
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A Review of Dromaeosaurid Systematics and Paravian Phylogeny
Turner, A. H., Makovicky, P. J., & Norell, M. A. (2012) · Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History · doi:10.1206/748.1 · Cited by 350 · see citing works
Rauhut, O. W. M., Foth, C., & Tischlinger, H. (2018) · PeerJ · doi:10.7717/peerj.4191 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Dececchi, T. A., & Larsson, H. C. E. (2011) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022292 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
“Advanced ornithurans, which have musculoskeletal morphologies indicative of powerful flight comparable to extant birds [5,108,109] occur at least 50 million years before the oldest known neornithine [110,111].”
BackgroundLambertz, M., & Perry, S. F. (2015) · Zoologischer Anzeiger - A Journal of Comparative Zoology · doi:10.1016/j.jcz.2015.02.008 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Wu, Q., O’Connor, J. K., Wang, S., & Zhou, Z. (2024) · PeerJ · doi:10.7717/peerj.16960 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Zhou, Z., & Zhang, F.
- Corresponding author
- Zhou, Zhonghe
- Zhang, Fucheng
- Venue
- Zoologica Scripta
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006-07
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 363-373
- ISSN
- 0300-3256 (ISSN-L)
- 1463-6409
- OpenAlex
- W2060934644
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 1.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Zoologica Scripta (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- 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
- Lower Cretaceous, Liaoning Province, new genus and species, herbivorous diet, tibiotarsus, Astragalus, Archaeopteryx, dietary diversity
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