Zhou Zhonghe, Zhang Fucheng
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
Naturwissenschaften. 2002 Jan;89(1):34-8. doi: 10.1007/s00114-001-0276-9.
With only one known exception, early Cretaceous birds were smaller than their closest theropod dinosaur relatives. Here we report on a new bird from the Early Cretaceous feathered-dinosaur-bearing continental deposits of Liaoning, northeast China, which is not only larger than Archaeopteryx but is nearly twice as large as the basal dromaeosaur Microraptor. The new taxon, Sapeornis chaoyangensis gen. et sp. nov., has a more basal phylogenetic position than all other birds except for Archaeopteryx. Its exceptionally long forelimbs, well-developed deltoid crest of the humerus, proximally fused metacarpals, relatively short hindlimbs and short pygo-style indicate powerful soaring capability and further suggest that by the Early Cretaceous ecological diversification of early birds was greater than previously assumed. Electronic supplementary material to this paper can be obtained by using the Springer LINK server located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-001-0276-9.
除了一个已知的例外，早白垩世鸟类比它们关系最近的兽脚亚目恐龙近亲体型更小。在此，我们报道一种来自中国东北辽宁早白垩世含羽毛恐龙的陆相沉积层的新鸟类，它不仅比始祖鸟大，而且几乎是基干驰龙类小盗龙的两倍大。这个新分类单元，朝阳神州鸟（Sapeornis chaoyangensis），属及种均为新属新种，其系统发育位置比除始祖鸟之外的所有其他鸟类都更基干。它异常长的前肢、肱骨上发育良好的三角嵴、近端愈合的掌骨、相对较短的后肢以及短尾综骨，表明其具有强大的翱翔能力，并且进一步表明到早白垩世时早期鸟类的生态多样性比之前所认为的更大。本文的电子补充材料可通过位于http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-001-0276-9的Springer LINK服务器获取。
