Xiaotingia

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Xiaotingia
Temporal range:
Ma[1]
Type specimen
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: †Anchiornithidae
Genus: †Xiaotingia
Xu et al., 2011
Type species
Xiaotingia zhengi
Xu et al., 2011

Xiaotingia is a

theropod dinosaur from Middle Jurassic or early Late Jurassic deposits of western Liaoning, China, containing a single species, Xiaotingia zhengi.[2][3]

Discovery

Size of Xiaotingia

Xiaotingia is known from the

Jianchang, from the Tiaojishan Formation.[2]

Etymology

Xiaotingia was first named by Xu Xing, You Hailu, Du Kai and Han Fenglu in 2011 and the type species is Xiaotingia zhengi. The generic name and specific name together honour paleontologist Zheng Xiaoting.[2]

Description

Xiaotingia was morphologically similar to other anchiornithids. It was about 60 cm long and weighed an estimated 0.82 kg. It was a small feathered dinosaur that lived in an arboreal environment. Like Archaeopteryx it had long forelimbs. Its femur was longer than its humerus, 84 mm compared to 71 mm, which might indicate that it stood on its hind limbs and could flap its forelimbs to achieve flight.[2]

Xiaotingia had feathers on its head, body, forelimbs and hind limbs. The feathers on the femur were quite long, measuring 55 mm. It also had long pennaceous feathers on its tibia and metatarsus. If Xiaotingia could fly short distances it might also have used its hind limbs as wings.[4]

Xiaotingia had a dentary tooth count probably less than 10 and teeth similar in morphology to those of basal avians.[2]

Classification

The initial analysis by Xu et al. showed that Xiaotingia formed a

Aves with Archaeopteryx as a specifier.[2] This phylogenetic hypothesis was challenged by an analysis using different methods published several months later however, in which Archaeopteryx was again recovered as an avialan, while Xiaotingia remained closely allied to Anchiornis within the Troodontidae.[6] In 2012, an expanded and revised version of the initial analysis also found Archaeopteryx to be avialan and Anchiornis to be troodontid, but recovered Xiaotingia as the most primitive member of the clade Dromaeosauridae rather than a close relative of Anchiornis within Troodontidae.[7]

Life restoration
Skeletal restoration

Cladogram following the results of a phylogenetic study by Lefèvre et al., 2017.[4]

Pennaraptora

In the 2017 re-evaluation of the Harlem

troodontid and the latter a close relative of anchiornithids.[8]

References

  1. doi:10.1007/s11434-008-0287-4
    .
  2. ^
    S2CID 205225790. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 16 January 2016.
  3. ^
    PMID 29197327
    .
  4. ^
    doi:10.1007/s00114-017-1496-y
  5. ^ "Feathers fly in first bird debate". BBC News. 27 July 2011.
  6. PMID 22031726
    .
  7. PMID 22615813
    .
  8. PMID 31333906
    .
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