Protarchaeopteryx

Protarchaeopteryx
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 124.6 Ma
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Holotype, Geological Museum of China
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Clade: †Oviraptorosauria
Genus: †Protarchaeopteryx
Ji & Ji, 1997
Species:
†P. robusta
Binomial name
†Protarchaeopteryx robusta
Ji & Ji, 1997

Protarchaeopteryx (meaning "before Archaeopteryx" although it is from the Cretaceous and Archaeopteryx is from the Jurassic) is a genus of turkey-sized feathered theropod dinosaur from China.[1] Known from the Jianshangou bed of the Yixian Formation, it lived during the early Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous, approximately 124.6 million years ago.[2] It was probably a herbivore or omnivore, although its hands were very similar to those of small carnivorous dinosaurs. It appears to be one of the most basal members of the Oviraptorosauria, closely related to Incisivosaurus,[3][4] or a taxon slightly less closely related to birds than oviraptorosaurs were.[5][6]

  1. ^ Ji, Q., and Ji, S. (1997). "Protarchaeopterygid bird (Protarchaeopteryx gen. nov.) – fossil remains of archaeopterygids from China." Chinese Geology, 238: 38–41.
  2. ^ Zhou, Z. (2006). "Evolutionary radiation of the Jehol Biota: chronological and ecological perspectives." Geological Journal, 41: 377–393.
  3. ^ Paul G.S. (2010), The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, Princeton University Press, pp. 146–145
  4. ^ Cau, Andrea (2020-02-25). "The body plan of Halszkaraptor escuilliei (Dinosauria, Theropoda) is not a transitional form along the evolution of dromaeosaurid hypercarnivory". PeerJ. 8: e8672. doi:10.7717/peerj.8672. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 7047864. PMID 32140312.
  5. ^ Wang, Min; O’Connor, Jingmai K.; Xu, Xing; Zhou, Zhonghe (May 2019). "A new Jurassic scansoriopterygid and the loss of membranous wings in theropod dinosaurs". Nature. 569 (7755): 256–259. Bibcode:2019Natur.569..256W. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1137-z. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 31068719. S2CID 148571099.
  6. ^ Hartman, Scott; Mortimer, Mickey; Wahl, William R.; Lomax, Dean R.; Lippincott, Jessica; Lovelace, David M. (2019-07-10). "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. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 6626525. PMID 31333906.