Pengornis

Taxobox
name = "Pengornis"
status = fossil
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
subclassis = Enantiornithes
genus = "Pengornis"
genus_authority =

"Pengornis" is the largest enantiornithine bird ever described. It lived during the Early Cretaceous in northeast China.

the name Pengornis derives from "Peng", which refers to a mythological bird from Chinese folklore, and "-ornis", which means bird in Greek.

Pengornis is known from a single fossil, described by Zhou et al. in 2008. This holotype is in the collection of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing China. Its accession number is IVPP V15336. It was collected from the Jiufotang Formation, at Dapingfang, Chaoyang, Liaoning China.

Pengornis shows characters of the humeral head, acromion, and anterior cervical vertebrae, that were previously known only in members of the Ornithurae. A phylogenetic analysis by Zhou et al. reduces to just three the number of characters that support enantiornithine monophyly . Thus, Pengornis supports the possibility that enantiornithines and Ornithurines may not be distinct clades."Insight into diversity, body size and morphological evolution from the largest Early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird" Zhonghe Zhou, Julia Clarke, Fucheng Zhang "Journal of Anatomy" (2008) 212, pp565–577. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7580.2008.00880.x]

(see Apsaravis)

References