New Jeholornis species

[Ben Creisler <bscreisler@yahoo.com>]

From: Ben Creisler
bscreisler@yahoo.com
 
A new online paper--not sure if the publication date will be 2012. (I might 
have suggested "palmacauda" or some such as the species name.)
 
Jingmai K. O'Connor, Chengkai Sun, Xing Xu, Xiaolin Wang & Zhonghe Zhou ("2011")
A new species of Jeholornis with complete caudal integument.
Historical Biology (advance online publication)
DOI:10.1080/08912963.2011.552720
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08912963.2011.552720
 
 
Abstract
The Early Cretaceous long bony-tailed bird Jeholornis prima displays characters 
both more basal than Archaeopteryx and more derived, exemplifying the mosaic 
distribution of advanced avian features that characterises early avian 
evolution and obfuscates attempts to understand early bird relationships. The 
current diversity of Jeholornithiformes is controversial, since multiple 
possibly synonymous genera were named simultaneously. Here, we provide the 
first definitive evidence of a second species belonging to this clade, and 
erect the new taxon J. palmapenis sp. nov. This new specimen reveals the tail 
integument of Jeholornithiformes, the morphology of which appears to have no 
aerodynamic benefit suggesting this clade evolved plumage patterns that were 
primarily for display.