New finding further reduces morphological gap between two major avian groups

[PhysOrg]

During the 2005 field season, Paleontologists from Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Paleontological Institute of Shenyang Normal University, collected a partial postcranial skeleton of a new enantiornithine bird from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation at the Dapingfang Locality, Chaoyang County, western Liaoning, China, and described it to a new enantiornithine bird, Xiangornis shenmi, gen. et sp. nov., which exhibits some features normally present in derived ornithurines, further blurring the distinctness of the two major avian groups.

 

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