Longipterygidae
| Longipterygids Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,
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| Fossil specimen of Longipteryx chaoyangensis, Hong Kong Science Museum | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Clade: | Avialae |
| Clade: | †Enantiornithes |
| Family: | †Longipterygidae Zhang et al., 2001 |
| Type species | |
| †Longipteryx chaoyangensis Zhang et al., 2001
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| Genera | |
| Synonyms | |
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Longipterygidae is a family of early enantiornithean avialans from the Early Cretaceous epoch of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation and Yixian Formation, dating to the early Aptian age, 125-120 million years ago.[3]
Description
Longipterygids are characterized by an extremely long, toothed snout (making up over 60% of the total skull length), in which the teeth are restricted to the tips of the jaws. The snouts were straight but slightly concave at a point behind the nostrils, and the bones of the snout tip were solid. Their pygostyles, the series of fused vertebrae in the tail, were unusually large, and longer than the foot bones. The feet of longipterygids were also specialized relative to other enantiornitheans. Where most enantiornitheans had a long middle toe with a "knuckle" (trochlea) that extended beyond the outer two, the toes of longipterygids were even in length, and attached to the rest of the foot at the same level. This configuration is also seen in some groups of modern birds and is usually considered an adaptation for advanced perching ability. It is likely that longipterygids lived primarily in trees. Because their long jaws tipped with large, often curved teeth are usually considered an adaptation for catching and eating fish, it is likely that they were similar in ecology to modern kingfishers.[4] Other interpretations of their habitus include mud-probing and the probing for insects behind tree bark.[3] A study on Mesozoic avialan diets does recover Longipteryx as a piscivore.[5] A 2022 study, however, does find them most likely to be generalistic insectivores (sans possibly Shengjingornis due to its larger size, poorly preserved skull and unusual pedal anatomy), being too small for specialised carnivory and herbivory; the atypical rostrum is tentatively speculated to be unrelated to feeding ecology.[6]
Classification
The Longipterygidae was first coined as a family of enantiornitheans by Zhang and colleagues in 2001. They included only the first known species, Longipteryx chaoyangensis, and placed the family in its own order, Longipterygiformes.[7] While Longipterygiformes has never been formally defined, Longipterygidae was given a phylogenetic definition by O'Connor and colleagues in 2009. They defined the clade to include Longipteryx, Longisrostravis, their most recent common ancestor, and all of its descendants.[8]
The cladogram below was found in the phylogenetic analysis of O'Connor, Gao and Chiappe (2010a).[9]
| Longipterygidae | |
Subsequently, the following cladogram was found in the phylogenetic analysis of Li et al. (2012):[10]
| Longipterygidae | |
References
- ^ Li Li; En-pu Gong; Li-dong Zhang; Ya-jun Yang & Lian-hai Hou (2010). "A new enantiornithine bird (aves) from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning, China". Acta Palaeontologica Sinica. 49 (4): 524–531.
- ^ Hartman, Scott; Mortimer, Mickey; Wahl, William R.; Lomax, Dean R.; Lippincott, Jessica; Lovelace, David M. (2019). "A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight". PeerJ. 7: e7247. doi:10.7717/peerj.7247. PMC 6626525. PMID 31333906.
- ^ a b Morschhauser, E. M.; Varricchio, D.J.; Gao, C.; Liu, J.; Wang, Z.; Cheng, X. & Meng, Q. (2009). "Anatomy of the Early Cretaceous bird Rapaxavis pani, a new species from Liaoning Province, China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 29 (2): 545–554. doi:10.1671/039.029.0210. S2CID 84643293.
- ^ O’Connor, Jingmai K.; Zhou, Zhonghe; Zhang, Fucheng (28 February 2011). "A reappraisal of Boluochia zhengi (Aves: Enantiornithes) and a discussion of intraclade diversity in the Jehol avifauna, China". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 9 (1): 51–63. doi:10.1080/14772019.2010.512614. S2CID 84817636.
- ^ Zhou, Ya-Chun; Sullivan, Corwin; Zhou, Zhong-He; Zhang, Fu-Cheng (January 2021). "Evolution of tooth crown shape in Mesozoic birds, and its adaptive significance with respect to diet". Palaeoworld. 30 (4): 724–736. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2020.12.008. S2CID 234117375.
- ^ Miller, Case Vincent; Pittman, Michael; Wang, Xiaoli; Zheng, Xiaoting; Bright, Jen A. (2022). "Diet of Mesozoic toothed birds (Longipterygidae) inferred from quantitative analysis of extant avian diet proxies". BMC Biology. 20 (1): 101. doi:10.1186/s12915-022-01294-3. PMC 9097364. PMID 35550084.
- ^ Zhang, Fucheng; Zhou, Zhonghe; Hou, Lianhai; Gu, Gang (1 June 2001). "Early diversification of birds: Evidence from a new opposite bird". Chinese Science Bulletin. 46 (11): 945–949. Bibcode:2001ChSBu..46..945Z. doi:10.1007/BF02900473. S2CID 85215328.
- ^ O'Connor, Jingmai K.; Wang, Xuri; Chiappe, Luis M.; Gao, Chunling; Meng, Qingjin; Cheng, Xiaodong; Liu, Jinyuan (12 March 2009). "Phylogenetic support for a specialized clade of Cretaceous enantiornithine birds with information from a new species". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 29 (1): 188–204. doi:10.1080/02724634.2009.10010371. S2CID 196607241.
- ^ O'Connor, Jingmai K.; Gao, Ke-Qin; Chiappe, Luis M. (24 March 2010). "A new ornithuromorph (Aves: Ornithothoraces) bird from the Jehol Group indicative of higher-level diversity" (PDF). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 30 (2): 311–321. doi:10.1080/02724631003617498. S2CID 53489175.
- ^ Li, Li; Jinqi, Wang; Xi, Zhang; Shilin, Hou (October 2012). "A New Enantiornithine Bird from the Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in Jinzhou Area, Western Liaoning Province, China". Acta Geologica Sinica - English Edition. 86 (5): 1039–1044. doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.2012.00729.x. S2CID 129497987.
