Insight into the evolution of avian flight from a new clade of Early Cretaceous ornithurines from China and the morphology of Yixianornis grabaui

Journal of Anatomy
Julia A ClarkeFucheng Zhang

Abstract

In studies of the evolution of avian flight there has been a singular preoccupation with unravelling its origin. By contrast, the complex changes in morphology that occurred between the earliest form of avian flapping flight and the emergence of the flight capabilities of extant birds remain comparatively little explored. Any such work has been limited by a comparative paucity of fossils illuminating bird evolution near the origin of the clade of extant (i.e. 'modern') birds (Aves). Here we recognize three species from the Early Cretaceous of China as comprising a new lineage of basal ornithurine birds. Ornithurae is a clade that includes, approximately, comparatively close relatives of crown clade Aves (extant birds) and that crown clade. The morphology of the best-preserved specimen from this newly recognized Asian diversity, the holotype specimen of Yixianornis grabaui Zhou and Zhang 2001, complete with finely preserved wing and tail feather impressions, is used to illustrate the new insights offered by recognition of this lineage. Hypotheses of avian morphological evolution and specifically proposed patterns of change in different avian locomotor modules after the origin of flight are impacted by recognition of the new line...Continue Reading

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Citations

Dec 25, 2008·Die Naturwissenschaften·John R Hutchinson, Vivian Allen
Oct 9, 2013·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Jingmai O'ConnorZhonghe Zhou
Jul 10, 2009·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Zhonghe Zhou, Fucheng Zhang Zhiheng Li
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Jul 10, 2021·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Case Vincent Miller, Michael Pittman

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