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A new, remarkably preserved, enantiornithine bird from the Upper Cretaceous Qiupa Formation of Henan (central China) and convergent evolution between enantiornithines and modern birds

Authors :
Li Xu
Xingliao Zhang
Haiyan Tong
Jiming Zhang
Huali Chang
Songhai Jia
Jingmai K. O’Connor
Eric Buffetaut
Source :
Geological Magazine. 158:2087-2094
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2021.

Abstract

A new enantiornithine bird is described on the basis of a well preserved partial skeleton from the Upper Cretaceous Qiupa Formation of Henan Province (central China). It provides new evidence about the osteology of Late Cretaceous enantiornithines, which are mainly known from isolated bones; in contrast, Early Cretaceous forms are often represented by complete skeletons. While the postcranial skeleton shows the usual distinctive characters of enantiornithines, the skull displays several features, including confluence of the antorbital fenestra and the orbit and loss of the postorbital, evolved convergently with modern birds. Although some enantiornithines retained primitive cranial morphologies into the latest Cretaceous Period, at least one lineage evolved cranial modifications that parallel those in modern birds.

Details

ISSN :
14695081 and 00167568
Volume :
158
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Geological Magazine
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........9b3aadecc159cde0a12b818e3253611c