Kingdom Animalia Clade †Yanornithiformes Rank Family | Phylum Chordata Higher classification Saurischia | |
Similar Songlingornis, Yanornis, Dinosaur, Archaeorhynchus | ||
Songlingornithidae is a family of early ornithuromorph birds from the early Cretaceous Period of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation, dating to the early Aptian age, 120 million years ago.
The family Songlingornithidae was first named by Hou in 1997 to contain the type genus, Songlingornis. Clarke et al. (2006) was first to find a close relationship between Songlingornis and the "yanornithids".
The name was originally coined to reflect a close relationship between the two supposedly similar (but poorly preserved) bird fossils, of the genera Songlingornis and Chaoyangia. However, subsequent studies found that Chaoyangia was probably not closely related to Songlingornis. Instead, songlingornis was found to be closely related to another group which had been given the name Yanornithidae--the name Songlingornithidae, having been named first, took precedence. Several more recent studies have found that the hongshanornithids are probably also a member of this group. At least one study has found the late Cretaceous Mongolian bird Hollanda to be a member of this group.