Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Ornithothoraces

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Kingdom
  
Animalia

Clade
  
Pygostylia

Higher classification
  
Pygostylia

Phylum
  
Chordata

Scientific name
  
Ornithothoraces

Ornithothoraces httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Clade
  
Ornithothoraces Chiappe & Calvo, 1994

Lower classifications
  
Bird, Enantiornithes, Hesperornis

Ornithothoraces is a group of avialans that includes all enantiornithines ("opposite birds") and the euornithes ("true birds"), which includes modern birds and their closest ancestors. The name Ornithothoraces means "bird thoraxes". This refers to the modern, highly advanced anatomy of the thorax that gave the ornithothoracines superior flight capability compared to more primitive avialans. This anatomy includes a large, keeled breastbone, elongated coracoids and a modified glenoid joint in the shoulder, and a semi-rigid rib cage.

The earliest known members of the group are the enantiornithes Protopteryx fengningensis and Eopengornis martini, as well as the euornithine Archaeornithura meemannae, all from the Sichakou Member of the Huajiying Formation in China, which has been dated to 130.7 million years old. At least one other enantiornithine, Noguerornis gonzalezi, may be even older, at up to 145.5 million years ago, though its exact age is uncertain.

Classification

In 1994, Chiappe and Calvo established a phylogenetic definition of the group. They defend Ornithothoraces as a node-based clade, the common ancestor of Iberomesornis romerali and modern birds, and all of its other descendants. In 1998, Paul Sereno defined Ornithothoraces in the same way, but used Sinornis santensis instead of Iberomesornis romerali.

The cladogram below follows the results of a phylogenetic analysis by Wang et al., 2016:

References

Ornithothoraces Wikipedia