Sulcavis
| Sulcavis | ||||||||||||
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Cretaceous ( Barremium or Lower Aptium ) | ||||||||||||
| approx. 128.2 to 121.6 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sulcavis | ||||||||||||
| O'Connor et al. , 2013 | ||||||||||||
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Sulcavis ("furrow bird") is an extinct species of birds from the Lower Cretaceous of China . The only species of the genus, Sulcavis geeorum , was a medium-sized representative of the toothed enantiornithes and probably ate hard-shelled food. Sulcavis is known from a largely preserved skeleton from the Yixian Formation , which is around 120 to 130 years old. The genus wasfirst describedin 2013 by a group of palaeontologists around Jingmai K. O'Connor and is a rather derived enantiornith.
features
Sulcavis geeorum was medium-sized compared to other enantiornites: with a length of about 25 mm, its tarsometatarsus was slightly below that of today's rock doves ( Columba livia ). The skull preserved in a lateral deposit measures around 43 mm from the tip of the beak to the back of the head. As with most enantorniths, the beak was covered with teeth, which in Sulcavis were curved backwards and had fine longitudinal grooves on the back. This is a unique feature of the genus among the known enantiorniths. Sulcavis had a single claw on the wings .
Site, fossil material and stratigraphy
The holotype and only find of Sulcavis ( inventory number BMNH Ph-000805) is a largely preserved and articulated skeleton that was found in the northeast Chinese Yixian Formation . The dating of this formation has not yet been confirmed. Their age is limited to the period from the Barremium to the lower Aptium and is thus estimated to be 121.6 to 128.2 mya . Sulcavis geeorum's grooved teeth may specialize in hard-shell foods such as insects or crustaceans .
ecology
The Yixian Formation contains the remains of an extremely biodiverse biome , which apparently consisted of many different smaller ecosystems. The formation's paleoflora consists of conifers , farms , mosses and possible early flowering plants . In addition to a multitude of enantiorniths, pterosaurs , pelvic dinosaurs , crocodylomorphs and crayfish were also found there. During Sulcavis' lifetime , the formation was roughly at the same latitude as it is today.
Systematics
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| Systematic position of Sulcavis according to O'Connor et al. (2013). The genus is apparently in a group of derived enantiorniths. |
Sulcavis was 2013. Jingmai O'Connor , Yuguang Zhang , Luis Chiappe , Qingjin Meng , Li Quanguo and Liu Di as a new species with a single type sulcavis geeorum first described . The generic name is made up of the Latin sulcus for "furrow" and avis for bird. The authors dedicated the specific epithet to the Gee family from the United States , who helped finance the excavations in the Yixian formation.
The analysis of the osteological fine features of Sulcavis by O'Connor and colleagues using 245 variables showed that the genus occupies a relatively inferred position among the known enantiornithes . It is part of a large radiation that comprises the majority of the known taxa. However, the relationships in this clade are not completely resolved into dichotomies , which also applies to Sulcavis .
swell
literature
- Jingmai K. O'Connor, Yuguang Zhang, Luis M. Chiappe, Qingjin Meng, Li Quanguo, Liu Di: A New Enantiornithine from the Yixian Formation with the First Recognized Avian Enamel Specialization . In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . tape 33 , no. 1 , 2013, p. 1–12 , doi : 10.1080 / 02724634.2012.719176 .
- Zhonghe Zhou, Paul M. Barrett, Jason Hilton: An exceptionally preserved Lower Cretaceous ecosystem . In: Nature . tape 421 , no. 6925 , February 20, 2003, p. 807-814 , doi : 10.1038 / nature01420 .