A bizarre Early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird with unique crural feathers and an ornithuromorph plough-shaped pygostyle

Min Wang; Jingmai K O’Connor; Yanhong Pan; Zhonghe Zhou

doi:10.1038/ncomms14141

Nature Communications (Jan 2017)

A bizarre Early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird with unique crural feathers and an ornithuromorph plough-shaped pygostyle

Min Wang,
Jingmai K O’Connor,
Yanhong Pan,
Zhonghe Zhou

Affiliations

Min Wang: Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jingmai K O’Connor: Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yanhong Pan: Key Laboratory of Economic Stratigraphy and Palaeogeography of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhonghe Zhou: Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14141
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Although now extinct, Enantiornithes was the most diverse group of birds in the Mesozoic. Here, Wang and colleagues describe a new species of enantiornithine bird from 131 million years ago with features that suggest extensive diversification had occurred in the enantiornithines by this time.

Published in Nature Communications

ISSN: 2041-1723 (Online)
Publisher: Nature Portfolio
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science
Website: https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

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