Kingdom Animalia Clade Dinosauria Suborder Theropoda Scientific name Pennaraptora | Phylum Chordata Order Saurischia Clade Maniraptora Higher classification Maniraptora | |
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Lower classifications Bird, Avialae, Microraptor, Scansoriopteryx, Yi | ||
Pennaraptora (Latin penna-:bird feather + Latin rapere:snatch; a feathered bird-like predator) is a clade defined as the most recent common ancestor of Oviraptor philoceratops, Deinonychus antirrhopus, and Passer domesticus (the house sparrow), and all descendants thereof, by Foth et al., 2014. The earliest known definitive member of this clade is Anchiornis, from the late Jurassic period of China, about 160 million years ago.
The clade "Aviremigia" was conditionally proposed along with several other apomorphy-based clades relating to birds by Jacques Gauthier and Kevin de Queiroz in a 2001 paper. Their proposed definition for the group was "the clade stemming from the first panavian with ... remiges and rectrices, that is, enlarged, stiff-shafted, closed-vaned (= barbules bearing hooked distal pennulae), pennaceous feathers arising from the distal forelimbs and tail".