Anchiornis

Anchiornis; Temporal range: Late Jurassic (Oxfordian), 160.89–160.25 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
	Fossil specimen on display at the Beijing Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Clade:	Paraves
Family:	†Anchiornithidae
Genus:	†Anchiornis; Xu et al., 2009
Species:	†A. huxleyi
Binomial name
	†Anchiornis huxleyi; Xu et al., 2009
Synonyms
	Aurornis xui? ; Godefroit et al., 2013; Eosinopteryx brevipenna? ; Godefroit et al., 2013; Serikornis sungei? ; Lefèvre et al., 2017;

Anchiornis is a genus of small, four-winged paravian dinosaurs, with only one known species, the type species Anchiornis huxleyi, named for its similarity to modern birds. The Latin name Anchiornis derives from a Greek word meaning "near bird", and huxleyi refers to Thomas Henry Huxley, a contemporary of Charles Darwin.

Anchiornis fossils have been found only in the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning, China, in rocks dated to the Late Jurassic, about 160 million years ago. It is known from hundreds of specimens, and given the exquisite preservation of some of these fossils, it became the first Mesozoic dinosaur species for which almost the entire life appearance could be determined, and an important source of information on the early evolution of birds.^[2]

^ Chu, Z.; He, H.; Ramezani, J.; Bowring, S.A.; Hu, D.; Zhang, L.; Zheng, S.; Wang, X.; Zhou, Z.; Deng, C.; Guo, J. (2016). "High-precision U-Pb geochronology of the Jurassic Yanliao Biota from Jianchang (western Liaoning Province, China): Age constraints on the rise of feathered dinosaurs and eutherian mammals". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 17 (10): 3983. Bibcode:2016GGG....17.3983C. doi:10.1002/2016GC006529.
^ Li, Q.; Gao, K.-Q.; Vinther, J.; Shawkey, M. D.; Clarke, J. A.; d'Alba, L.; Meng, Q.; Briggs, D. E. G.; Prum, R. O. (2010). "Plumage color patterns of an extinct dinosaur" (PDF). Science. 327 (5971): 1369–1372. Bibcode:2010Sci...327.1369L. doi:10.1126/science.1186290. PMID 20133521. S2CID 206525132.

[dating2016-1] Chu, Z.; He, H.; Ramezani, J.; Bowring, S.A.; Hu, D.; Zhang, L.; Zheng, S.; Wang, X.; Zhou, Z.; Deng, C.; Guo, J. (2016). "High-precision U-Pb geochronology of the Jurassic Yanliao Biota from Jianchang (western Liaoning Province, China): Age constraints on the rise of feathered dinosaurs and eutherian mammals". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 17 (10): 3983. Bibcode:2016GGG....17.3983C. doi:10.1002/2016GC006529.

[lietal2010-2] Li, Q.; Gao, K.-Q.; Vinther, J.; Shawkey, M. D.; Clarke, J. A.; d'Alba, L.; Meng, Q.; Briggs, D. E. G.; Prum, R. O. (2010). "Plumage color patterns of an extinct dinosaur" (PDF). Science. 327 (5971): 1369–1372. Bibcode:2010Sci...327.1369L. doi:10.1126/science.1186290. PMID 20133521. S2CID 206525132.

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