Songlingornithidae

Songlingornithids Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 120 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Node:	Ornithothoraces
clade:	Ornithurae
Order:	†Yanornithiformes Zhou & Zhang, 2001
Family:	†Songlingornithidae Hou, 1997
Type species
†Songlingornis linghensis Hou, 1997
Genera
†Songlingornis †Yanornis †Yixianornis
Synonyms
Yanornithidae Zhou & Zhang, 2001 Aberratiodontuidae Gong, Hou & Wang, 2004 Yixianornithidae Zhang & Zhou, 2006

Songlingornithidae is a family of early ornithurine birds from the early Cretaceous Period of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation, dating to the early Aptian age, 120 million years ago.

The family Songlingornithidae was first named by Hou in 1997 to contain the type genus, Songlingornis.^[1] Clarke et al. (2006) was first to find a close relationship between Songlingornis and the "yanornithids".^[2]

There are three genera and species:

References

^ Hou, (1997). Mesozoic Birds of China. Taiwan Provincial Feng Huang Ku Bird Park. Taiwan: Nan Tou. 228 pp.
^ Clarke, Zhou and Zhang, (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.