Hongshanornis
Name:
Hongshanornis
(Hongshan bird).
Phonetic: Hong-shan-or-niss.
Named By: Z. Zhou & F. Zhang -
1998.
Classification: Chordata, Aves,
Yanornithiformes, Hongshanornithidae.
Species: H. longicresta
(type).
Diet: Uncertain, but possibly a generalist.
Size: Wingspan roughly about 32 centimetres.
Known locations: China - Yixian Formation.
Time period: Barremian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Several individuals, some
complete.
Hongshanornis
was an early bird that lived in China during the early Cretaceous
period. Most interpretations of Hongshanornis
depict it as being a
wading bird but one that was still capable of flight. The wings were
fairly broad and tapered out to triangular points at the end. If
Hongshanornis was a wader then it was most likely
also an insectivore
plucking up small invertebrates from the mud and aquatic plants.
In
the type specimen of Hongshanornis it was
considered that there might
have been a crest present on the head. This was because an
impression was left around the skull on the slab that the specimen was
preserved on, though it was also noted that this impression might
have been artificially created during the fossilisation process. A
second specimen of Hongshanornis was later found
without any hint of
feather impressions, meaning that this specimen at least had no crest
at the time of death, and possibly no members of the genus had a
crest.
Further reading
- Discovery of an ornithurine bird and its implication for Early
Cretaceous avian radiation. - Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences 102(32):18998-19002. - Z. Zhou & F.
Zhang - 1998.
- A new specimen of the Early Cretaceous bird Hongshanornis
longicresta: Insights into the aerodynamics and diet of a
basal
ornithuromorph. - PeerJ 2: e234. - Luis M. Chiappe, Bo
Zhao, Jingmai K. O’Connor, Gao Chunling, Xuri Wang, Michael
Habib, Jesus Marugan-Lobon, Qingjin Meng & Xiaodong
Cheng - 2014.
-
Reinterpretation of a previously described Jehol bird clarifies early
trophic evolution in the Ornithuromorpha. - Proceedings of the Royal
Society B: Biological Sciences. 285 (1871): 20172494. - Xiaoting Zheng,
Jingmai K. O'Connor, Xiaoli Wang, Yan Wang & Zhonghe Zhou - 2018.
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