Longipteryx

Longipteryx
Longipteryx chaoyangensis - featherless specimen.
Temporal occurrence
Lower Cretaceous
120 to 110 million years
Locations
Jiufotang Formation , Liaoning ( China )
Systematics
Birds (aves, avialae) Pygostylia Enantiornithes? Longipterygidae Longipteryx
Scientific name
Longipteryx
Zhang , Zhou , Hou & Gu , 2001

Longipteryx is a prehistoric genus of birds from the Lower Cretaceous that lived 110–120 million years ago ( Upper Aptium - Lower Albium ) in the northeast of the People's Republic of China . Remains of the only species, Longipteryx chaoyangensis , wererecoveredfrom the Jiufotang Formation near Chaoyang in Liaoning Province . In addition to the holotype - an almost completely preserved skeleton - which is now kept in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IVPP) under the number V 12325, there is currently another complete specimen as well as several isolated bone finds.

etymology

The name Longipteryx is a word created from the Latin longus = long and the ancient Greek πτέρυξ ( pteryx ) = wing, feather; chaoyangensis is the Latinized adjective of the city of Chaoyang, in German "chaoyangisch", "from Chaoyang".

description

Longipteryx reached a life size of around 15 cm, not including the tail. It had a long beak with a few hook teeth attached to the tip; the length of the beak exceeded the dimensions of the rest of the back of the head. As can be seen from the generic name, it had comparatively long and powerful wings. His primitive character can be seen from the two long, clawed fingers and the stocky thumb. The flying machine, however, was very well developed and so Longipteryx already had hook-shaped rib extensions that strengthened the chest - in contrast to its contemporaries. The claws and toes were long and strong, but the feet were quite short. All in all, Longipteryx should have been an already extremely airworthy animal. His mobility on the ground, however, was somewhat restricted. B. the humerus 1.56 times as long as the femur .

The holotype shows many feather prints. Strangely enough, there are no flight feathers among them , essentially body feathers, wing cover feathers and down . The well-developed flying machine contradicts the assumption that Longipteryx was a flightless bird. It is possible that the bird was moulting when it died , and any remaining flight feathers were then severed. On the other hand, several finds of Confuciusornis show a comparable fossilization , but this one was known to have very long flight feathers. In the holotype, the tail end was destroyed and no tail feathers have survived. The other find has an almost complete pygostyle , but has hardly any feathers. Interestingly, in the enantiornithes and other primeval birds none of the tail feathers common in the Neognathae have been found (so far) .

Way of life

Longipteryx probably dived for fish, crabs, and other aquatic animals. Its ecological niche is likely to have come close to that of today's kingfisher . Of course, this is only an approximate comparison, as his actual way of life and the ecotope he inhabits in the Lower Cretaceous Northeast China definitely differed greatly from that of the present.

Systematics

Cladistic analyzes of the skeletal anatomy of primitive birds show Longipteryx to be a member of the Cretan bird group Enantiornithes . Within the enantiornithine birds, the genus is also assigned to the Euenantiornithes , while in the first description for the taxon a separate (monotypical) family (Longipterygidae) and order (Longipterygiformes) within the subclass Enantiornithes was provided.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Zhang et al. (2001).
2. ↑ Humerus and furcula (IVPP V 12553) and an ulna (IVPP V 12554)
3. ↑ Zhang et al. (2001), Lamanna et al. (2006).
4. ↑ Clarke et al. (2006).
5. ↑ z. B. Zhang et al. (2001), Gong et al. (2004).
6. ↑ Chiappe, Walker (2002).

literature

• Luis M. Chiappe, Cyril A. Walker: Skeletal Morphology of the Cretaceous Euenantiornithes (Ornithothoraces: Enantiornithes). In: Luis M. Chiappe, Lawrence M. Witmer (Eds.): Mesozoic birds: above the heads of the dinosaurs. University of California Press, Berkeley 2002, pp. 240-267.
• Julia A. Clarke, Zhonghe Zhou, Fucheng Zhang: Insight into the evolution of avian flight from a new clade of Early Cretaceous ornithurines from China and the morphology of Yixianornis grabaui . In: Journal of Anatomy . 208 (3) 2006, pp. 287-308. doi: 10.1111 / j.1469-7580.2006.00534.x .
• Enpu Gong, Lianhai Hou, Lixia Wang: Enantiornithine Bird with Diapsidian Skull and Its Dental Development in the Early Cretaceous in Liaoning, China. In: Acta Geologica Sinica. 78, (1), 2004, pp. 1-7. (PDF)
• Matthew C. Lamanna, Hailu You, Jerald D. Harris, Luis M. Chiappe, Shuan Ji, Junchang Lü, Qiang Ji: A partial skeleton of an enantiornithine bird from the Early Cretaceous of northwestern China. In: Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 51, (3), 2006, pp. 423-434. (PDF) ( Memento of February 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Fucheng Zhang, Zhonghe Zhou, Lianhai Hou, Gang Gu: Early diversification of birds: Evidence from a new opposite bird. In: Chinese Science Bulletin. 46 (11), 2001, pp. 945-949. doi: 10.1007 / BF02900473