Longipterygidae
| Longipterygids | |
|---|---|
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| Fossil specimen of Longipteryx chaoyangensis, Hong Kong Science Museum
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | Avialae |
| Clade: | †Enantiornithes |
| Family: | †Longipterygidae Zhang et al., 2001 |
| Type species | |
| † Longipteryx chaoyangensis Zhang et al., 2001
| |
| Genera | |
| Synonyms | |
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Longipterygidae is a
avialans from the Early Cretaceous epoch of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation and Yixian Formation, dating to the early Aptian age, 125-120 million years ago.[3]
Description
Shanweiniao cooperorum
Longipterygids are characterized by an extremely long,
habitus include mud-probing and the probing for insects behind tree bark.[3] A study on Mesozoic avialan diets does recover Longipteryx as a piscivore.[5] A 2022 study, however, does find them most likely to be generalistic insectivores (sans possibly Shengjingornis due to its larger size, poorly preserved skull and unusual pedal anatomy), being too small for specialised carnivory and herbivory; the atypical rostrum is tentatively speculated to be unrelated to feeding ecology.[6]
Classification
The Longipterygidae was first coined as a
phylogenetic definition by O'Connor and colleagues in 2009. They defined the clade to include Longipteryx, Longisrostravis, their most recent common ancestor, and all of its descendants.[8]
The cladogram below was found in the phylogenetic analysis of O'Connor, Gao and Chiappe (2010a).[9]
| Longipterygidae | |
Subsequently, the following cladogram was found in the phylogenetic analysis of Li et al. (2012):[10]
| Longipterygidae | |
References
- ^ Li Li; En-pu Gong; Li-dong Zhang; Ya-jun Yang & Lian-hai Hou (2010). "A new enantiornithine bird (aves) from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning, China". Acta Palaeontologica Sinica. 49 (4): 524–531.
- ^ Hartman, Scott; Mortimer, Mickey; Wahl, William R.; Lomax, Dean R.; Lippincott, Jessica; Lovelace, David M. (2019). "A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight". PeerJ. 7: e7247. doi:10.7717/peerj.7247. PMC 6626525. PMID 31333906.
- ^ S2CID 84643293.
- S2CID 84817636.
- S2CID 234117375.
- PMID 35550084.
- S2CID 85215328.
- S2CID 196607241.
- S2CID 53489175.
- S2CID 129497987.