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Dunhuangia, new enantiornithine bird from Lower Cretaceous Changma Basin, China
Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com
A new paper:
Min Wang, Daqing Li, Jingmai K. O'Connor, Zhonghe Zhou & Hailu You (2015)
Second species of enantiornithine bird from the Lower Cretaceous
Changma Basin, northwestern China with implications for the taxonomic
diversity of the Changma avifauna.
Cretaceous Research 55: 56-65
doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2015.01.008
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019566711500018X
Highlights
We describe a new enantiornithine specimen Dunhuangia cuii, gen. et
sp. nov., from Lower Cretaceous Changma Basin, northwestern China.
Dunhuangia cuii represents the second enantiornithine to be named from
ornithuromorph dominated Changma avifauna.
Phylogenetic analysis place Dunhuangia cuii in a derived position with
Enantiornithes.
Abstract
We report on a new enantiornithine bird, Dunhuangia cuii, gen. et sp.
nov., from the Lower Cretaceous Xiagou Formation of the Changma Basin,
northwestern China. Although the material is incomplete, Dunhuangia
cuii preserves unique coracoidal and sternal morphologies that
distinguish it from other known enantiornithines; this specimen
represents only the second enantiornithine reported from the Changma
Basin that is diagnostic at the species level. This study enriches our
understanding of the enantiornithine component of this
ornithuromorph-dominated, Early Cretaceous avifauna.