Alexornis

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Alexornis
Temporal range:
Ma
Life reconstruction of Alexornis antecedens.
Life reconstruction of Alexornis antecedens.
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: Avialae
Clade: Enantiornithes
Order: Alexornithiformes
Brodkorb, 1976
Family: Alexornithidae
Brodkorb, 1976
Genus: Alexornis
Brodkorb, 1976
Species:
A. antecedens
Binomial name
Alexornis antecedens
Brodkorb, 1976

Alexornis is a

ornithologist Alexander Wetmore + Ancient Greek ornis, "bird", and antecedens, Latin for "going before" or "ancestral".[2]

A. antecedens is known only from a single fragmentary skeleton including shoulder, wing, and leg bones, but lacking a skull. It was about the size of a

Gobipteryx minuta (most other Cretaceous birds at the time were thought to be aquatic or semi-aquatic).[2]

Classification

Alexornis was originally described as an early member of the

kingfishers and relatives) and Piciformes (woodpeckers and relatives). However, when the first recognized enantiornithine fossils were discovered, it soon became clear that Alexornis was an additional member of this group.[3] Enantiornithes are characterized by a reversed articulation of the scapula and coracoid bones in the shoulder, and in 1983 Larry Martin showed that Brodkorb has accidentally switched these two bones in his original description, confused by their reversed anatomy.[5]

In the past, Alexornis has been allied with the similarly sized

References

  1. ^ Tykoski, R. S., & Fiorillo, A. R. (2010). An enantiornithine bird from the lower middle Cenomanian of Texas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 30(1), 288-292.
  2. ^ a b Pierce Brodkorb (1976). Discovery of a Cretaceous bird, apparently ancestral to the orders Coraciiformes and Piciformes (Aves: Carinatae) [File size 70 MB] (PDF). Vol. 27. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology. pp. 67–73. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 October 2014.
  3. ^ a b c Walker, C. A., Buffetaut, E., & Dyke, G. J. (2007). Large euenantiornithine birds from the Cretaceous of southern France, North America and Argentina. Geological Magazine, London, 144(6), 977.
  4. S2CID 221404013
    .
  5. ^ Martin, L. 1983. The origin and early radiation of birds. In Perspectives in Ornithology, Essays Presented for the Centennial of the American Ornithologists’ Union, pp. 291-338.
  6. ^ Walker, C. A., & Dyke, G. J. (2009). Euenantiornithine birds from the late Cretaceous of El Brete (Argentina). Irish Journal of Earth Sciences, 27(1), 15-62.