Two new skeletons of the enigmatic, rail-like avian taxon Songzia Hou, 1990 (Songziidae) from the early Eocene of China

Abstract

MIN WANG, MAYR, G., JIANGYONG ZHANG & Zhonghe Zhou, December 2012. Two new skeletons of the enigmatic, rail-like avian taxon Songzia Hou, 1990 (Songziidae) from the early Eocene of China. Alcheringa 36, 487–499. ISSN 0311-5518.

We describe two nearly complete articulated skeletons of a new species of Songziidae Hou, 1990 from the early Eocene of Central China. The specimens provide new anatomical information on this poorly known avian taxon. Songziids were considered most closely related to Rallidae in the original description, but as yet no convincing evidence has been put forth concerning their affinities. Phylogenetic analyses based on two previously published data sets combining data from the new fossils did not provide conclusive evidence concerning the affinities of songziids. Whereas one analysis supported rallid affinities, the other resulted in a clade including Songziidae, Messelornithidae, Rallidae and Heliornithidae. Apart from the proportionally much longer legs, the osteology of Songzia is, however, more similar to that of the contemporary Messelornithidae than to Rallidae.

Key words:

• fossil birds
• Songziidae
• Messelornithidae
• Rallidae
• phylogeny
• early Eocene
• China

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Yan Li for help in the field, Yutong Li for fossil preparation, Wei Gao and Jie Zhang for the photos. We thank the editor Stephen McLoughlin for improving the manuscript, and John Stewart and an anonymous reviewer for providing helpful comments. The research was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2012CB821906) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41172020, No. 40772019) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. We also thank T. Worthy and G. Dyke for comments on a previous version of the manuscript.