Chiappe Luis M, Qingjin Meng, Serrano Francisco, Sigurdsen Trond, Min Wang, Bell Alyssa, Di Liu
Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Beijing Museum of Natural History, Beijing, China.
PeerJ. 2019 Oct 25;7:e7846. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7846. eCollection 2019.
During the last decade, several -like enantiornithine species-and numerous specimens-have been recognized from the celebrated Jehol Biota of northwestern China. In this paper, we describe the anatomy of another "bohaiornithid" species from the 125 million-year-old Yixian Formation of Liaoning Province, China. The new taxon differs from previously recognized "bohaiornithids" on a number of characters from the forelimb and shoulder girdle. We also provide a new phylogenetic framework for enantiornithine birds, which questions the monophyly of the previously recognized bohaiornithid clade and highlights ongoing challenges for resolving enantiornithine interrelationships. Additionally, we offer the first assessment of the flight properties of -like enantiornithines. Our results indicate that while "bohaiornithids" were morphologically suited for flying through continuous flapping, they would have been unable to sustain prolonged flights. Such findings expand the flight strategies previously known for enantiornithines and other early birds.
在过去十年中，中国西北部著名的热河生物群中已识别出几种似反鸟类的物种以及众多标本。在本文中，我们描述了来自中国辽宁省1.25亿年前义县组的另一种“渤海鸟科”物种的解剖结构。这个新分类单元在前肢和肩带的一些特征上与先前识别的“渤海鸟科”不同。我们还为反鸟类提供了一个新的系统发育框架，这对先前识别的渤海鸟科分支的单系性提出了质疑，并突出了解决反鸟类亲缘关系方面持续存在的挑战。此外，我们首次评估了似反鸟类的飞行特性。我们的结果表明，虽然“渤海鸟科”在形态上适合通过持续扑翼飞行，但它们无法维持长时间飞行。这些发现扩展了先前已知的反鸟类和其他早期鸟类的飞行策略。
