Ornithurae

Ornithurans
Temporal range:
Early Cretaceous - Present, 130–0 Ma
Cast skeleton of Ichthyornis dispar, Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center
Australian brushturkey (Alectura lathami)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: Avialae
Clade: Ornithuromorpha
Clade: Ornithurae
Haeckel, 1866
Subgroups

Ornithurae (meaning "bird tails" in Greek) is a natural group that includes modern birds and their very close relatives such as Ichthyornis and the hesperornithines. This clade is defined in the PhyloCode by Juan Benito and colleagues in 2022 as "the smallest clade containing Ichthyornis dispar, Hesperornis regalis, and Vultur gryphus".[2]

  1. ^ Mayr, Gerald; Codrea, Vlad; Solomon, Alexandru; Bordeianu, Marian; Smith, Thierry (2020). "Reply to comments on "A well-preserved pelvis from the Maastrichtian of Romania suggests that the enigmatic Gargantuavis is neither an ornithurine bird nor an insular endemic"" (PDF). Cretaceous Research. 112 (104465). Archived (PDF) from the original on October 14, 2023.
  2. ^ Benito, J.; Chen, A.; Wilson, L.E.; Bhullar, B.S.; Burnham, D.; Field, D.J. (2022). "Forty new specimens of Ichthyornis provide unprecedented insight into the postcranial morphology of crownward stem group birds". PeerJ: e13919. doi:10.7717/peerj.13919. PMC 9762251. PMID 36545383.