Protobird

"Protobird" is an informal term that has been used by some

extinct

.

Zhou and Farlow (2001), for example, used the term "protobird" for primitive members of the clade

Aves, which they used to mean only modern ("crown group") birds.^[1]

Gregory S. Paul used the term "protobird" in a wider sense in 1988, to refer to the extremely bird-like non-avian dinosaurs (Maniraptora), including oviraptorosaurs, troodontids, and dromaeosaurids.^[2] Paul speculated that these forms were so bird-like they probably had feathers, an idea later proven by fossil evidence.

References

^ Zhou, Z. and Farlow, J.O. (2001). "Flight Capability and habits of Confuciusornis." Pp. 237-245 in New Perspectives on the Origin and Early Evolution of Birds. Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, USA.
^ Paul, Gregory S. (1988). Predatory Dinosaurs of the World. New York: Simon and Schuster. 464 pp.

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[1] Zhou, Z. and Farlow, J.O. (2001). "Flight Capability and habits of Confuciusornis." Pp. 237-245 in New Perspectives on the Origin and Early Evolution of Birds. Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, USA.

[paul1988-2] Paul, Gregory S. (1988). Predatory Dinosaurs of the World. New York: Simon and Schuster. 464 pp.

[1]

[2]

See also

References