Enantiornis
Enantiornis | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Clade: | Avialae |
Clade: | †Enantiornithes |
Order: | †Enantiornithiformes Martin, 1983 |
Family: | †Enantiornithidae Nesov, 1984 |
Genus: | †Enantiornis Walker, 1981 |
Species: | †E. leali
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Binomial name | |
†Enantiornis leali Walker, 1981
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Enantiornis is a
Description
The genus and the larger group it belongs to, get their name from the reversed scapula-coracoid connection they possess compared to modern birds and the
Another left shoulder and wing, almost complete and found associated in one lump of rock, as well as a few isolated bones were also assigned to this species mainly based on size. It is among the largest enantiornithines discovered to date,[2] with a length in life of around 78.5 cm (30.9 in), hip height of 34 cm (13 in), weight of 6.75 kg (14.9 lb),[3] and wingspan comparable to herring gulls, around 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in).[2] Its ecological niche resembled that of a mid-sized vulture or eagle.
Taxonomy and phylogeny
E. leali was possibly fairly closely related to Avisaurus, another genus of probably carnivorous enantiornithines, though its exact relationship is unclear. It was placed in a family of its own, Enantiornithidae. Other species from Asia that were previously placed in this genus are now split off. The former Enantiornis martini is now placed in Incolornis, while the former Enantiornis walkeri is now tentatively assigned to Explorornis. The reason for this is that these species were described when the diversity of enantiornithines was underestimated.
As no hindlimb elements are known from Enantiornis, it might include one of the El Brete enantiornithines known only from leg bones, namely Lectavis, Soroavisaurus or Yungavolucris. However, these apparently were all smaller than Enantiornis. Hindlimb material tentatively assigned to Martinavis and Elbretornis seems somewhat and a lot too small, respectively, to represent Enantiornis.[4]
The cladogram below is from Wang et al., 2022:[5]
Enantiornithes |
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l |
Key to letters:
b = Boluochia
c = Cathayornis
e = Enantiophoenix
f = Houornis
h = Longipteryx
i = Parabohaiornis
j = Pterygornis
l = Vorona
m = Yuanjiawaornis
n = Yungavolucris
References
- ^ S2CID 4340858.
- ^ ISBN 9780307459763. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
- ISBN 9780691190594. Retrieved 29 August 2022.)
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - S2CID 129573066. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2012-03-20.
- S2CID 247432530.