New Gobipteryx paper, and the fate of Nanantius

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

This just in:

Chiappe, L.M., M.A. Norell & J. Clark. 2001.  A new skull of _Gobipteryx
minuta_ (Aves: Enantiornithes) from the Cretaceous of the Gobi Desert.
American Museum Novitates 3346: 1-15.

A nice new skull of this Mesozoic beaky bird, including a very
well-preserved palatal region.    Corrects previous interpretations of the
structure, homology, and dorsoventral orientation (!) of the bones of this
bird given previously by Kurochkin and by Elzanowski.  Additionally, overlap
between this new specimen and the skull elements of the holotype of
"Nanantius valifanovi" show that the two are indistinguishable, and so the
latter is sunk into Gobipteryx minuta.  By uniting the two, Gobipteryx is
moved into Enantiornithes on much stronger evidence than before.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796