Yixianornis

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Yixianornis
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous (Aptian?)

Fossil specimen of Yixianornis grabaui on display at the Beijing Museum of Natural History.

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Subclass:	Ornithurae
Order:	Yanornithiformes
Family:	Songlingornithidae
Genus:	Yixianornis
Species:	Y. grabaui

Binomial name

Yixianornis grabaui

Yixianornis (meaning bird of the Yixian Formation) is a bird genus from the Early Cretaceous. Its remains have been found in the Jiufotang Formation at Chaoyang (PRC) which is probably of early Aptian age, around 125-120 million years ago.^{[verification needed]} Only one species, Yixianornis grabaui, is known at present. The species name, Grabau, is named after American Paleontologist Amadeus William Grabau, who surveyed China in the early 20th Century.

It was a close relative of Yanornis and together with this and Songlingornis forms a clade of early modern birds. This clade contains the most primitive birds that display an essentially modern pygostyle and fan of tail feathers.^[1]

[edit] See also

Jixiangornis orientalis, a very primitive bird (or bird-like dinosaur)
Ornithurae

[edit] Footnotes

^ Clarke, Julia A., Zhou, Zhonghe, Zhang, Fucheng. (2006) "Insight into the evolution of avian flight from a new clade of Early Cretaceous ornithurines from China and the morphology of Yixianornis grabaui" "Journal of Anatomy" 208:287-308.

[edit] References

Clarke, Julia A.; Zhou, Zhonghe & Zhang, Fucheng (2006): Insight into the evolution of avian flight from a new clade of Early Cretaceous ornithurines from China and the morphology of Yixianornis grabaui. Journal of Anatomy 208 (3):287-308. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7580.2006.00534.x PDF fulltext Electronic Appendix
Mortimer, Michael (2004): The Theropod Database: Phylogeny of taxa. Retrieved 2007-OCT-29.