Avebrevicauda

Avebrevicaudans
Temporal range:
Early CretaceousPresent, 131–0 Ma
Fossil specimen of Sapeornis chaoyangensis, Hong Kong Science Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Theropoda
Clade: Euavialae
Clade: Avebrevicauda
Paul, 2002
Subgroups

Avebrevicauda (meaning "birds with short tails") is a group which includes all avialan species with ten or fewer free vertebrae in the tail. The group was named in 2002 by Gregory S. Paul to distinguish short-tailed avialans from their ancestors, such as Archaeopteryx, which had long, reptilian tails.[1]

The cladogram below follows the results of a phylogenetic study by Wang et al., 2016.[2]

Euavialae

Jixiangornis


Avebrevicauda

Sapeornis


Pygostylia

Confuciusornis




Chongmingia



Ornithothoraces






References

  1. Paul, G.S. (2002). Dinosaurs of the Air. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 460 pp.
  2. Wang M., Wang X., Wang Y., and Zhou Z. (2016). A new basal bird from China with implications for morphological diversity in early birds. Scientific Reports, 6: 19700. doi:10.1038/srep19700.
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