A new Early Cretaceous enantiornithine (Aves, Ornithothoraces) from northwestern China with elaborate tail ornamentation

ABSTRACT

We provide a detailed description of a well-preserved enantiornithine specimen (GSGM-05-CM-004) from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) Xiagou Formation of northwestern Gansu Province, China, for which we erect the new taxon Feitianius paradisi, gen. et sp. nov. This specimen has a distinctive pelvic morphology and can be further distinguished from all other Mesozoic birds by a unique caudal plumage formed by multiple rectricial morphotypes. This newly documented tail morphology reveals a previously unrecognized level of complexity in the plumage of basal birds. This complex tail-feather morphology has a parallel in extant sexually dimorphic birds in which the males have the most altered tails; thus, we identify this specimen as male. Ornamental tail morphologies, such as the novel tail plumage described here, dominate Enantiornithes. This reinforces hypotheses that sexual selection was a major driving force in the evolution of basal bird plumage.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8BEF4422-58C5-487B-B76A-51C5855CF87B

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Citation for this article: O’Connor, J. K., D.-Q. Li, M. C. Lamanna, M. Wang, J. D. Harris, J. Atterholt, and H.-L. You. 2015. A new Early Cretaceous enantiornithine (Aves, Ornithothoraces) from northwestern China with elaborate tail ornamentation. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2015.1054035.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the personnel of the former Fossil Research and Development Center of the Third Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration Academy of Gansu Province for discovering and preparing the specimen. We are grateful to J. Zhang (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology) for photographing the specimen and C. Crist (Carnegie Museum of Natural History) for the line drawing in Figure 1B. The manuscript was improved by constructive reviews from two anonymous reviewers and editorial comments from T. Worthy. This research was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2012CB821906), the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Hundred Talents Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Gansu Provincial Bureau of Geo-Exploration and Mineral Development, and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Submitted October 27, 2014; revisions received April 9, 2015; accepted

April 24, 2015.

Handling editor: Trevor Worthy.