A Jurassic avialan dinosaur from China resolves the early phylogenetic history of birds

Autor:	Hu Dong-Yu, François Escuillié, Pascal Godefroit, Andrea Cau, Gareth J. Dyke, Wu Wenhao
Přispěvatelé:	Pascal, Godefroit, Andrea, Cau, Hu, Dong-Yu, François, Escuillié, Wu, Wenhao, Gareth, Dyke
Rok vydání:	2013
Předmět:	Avialae China Multidisciplinary biology Fossils Paraves Feathers biology.organism_classification Tiaojishan Formation Dinosaurs Birds Paleontology Taxon N/A Animals Bird flight Origin of birds Archaeopteryx Phylogeny Skeleton Troodontidae
Zdroj:	Nature. 498:359-362
ISSN:	1476-4687 0028-0836
Popis:	The recent discovery of small paravian theropod dinosaurs with well-preserved feathers in the Middle-Late Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning Province (northeastern China) has challenged the pivotal position of Archaeopteryx, regarded from its discovery to be the most basal bird. Removing Archaeopteryx from the base of Avialae to nest within Deinonychosauria implies that typical bird flight, powered by the forelimbs only, either evolved at least twice, or was subsequently lost or modified in some deinonychosaurians. Here we describe the complete skeleton of a new paravian from the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning Province, China. Including this new taxon in a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis for basal Paraves does the following: (1) it recovers it as the basal-most avialan; (2) it confirms the avialan status of Archaeopteryx; (3) it places Troodontidae as the sister-group to Avialae; (4) it supports a single origin of powered flight within Paraves; and (5) it implies that the early diversification of Paraves and Avialae took place in the Middle-Late Jurassic period.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::a1f26cf631b55902a7ae03c322428dc1 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12168 Zobrazit plný text záznamu Plný text ve formátu PDF