Re: [dinosaur] Confuciusornithiformes taxonomical revision (free pdf)

[Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com>]

This is really useful housekeeping of known confuciusornithiform taxa,
with several genera and species demoted to subjective junior synonyms
of _Confuciusornis sanctus_.  Also, the phylogenetic analysis recovers
_Confuciusornis dui_ as the sister taxon to _Confuciusornis sanctus_
(in contrast to some previous analyses) - so _C. dui_ looks secure in
genus _Confuciusornis_.

There seems to a few typos in this 'advanced online publication'
version.  The phylogenetic definition of Confuciusornithidae looks
incomplete: "The most-inclusive clade that contains _Eoconfuciusornis
zhengi_ Zhang et al., 2008, but not _Sapeornis chaoyangensis_ Zhou &
Zhang, 2002, or _Passer domesticus_ Linnaeus, 1758."  Surely the type
species _Confuciusornis sanctus_ needs to be included as an internal
specifier as well.

Also, the revised diagnosis of _Changchengornis hengdaoziensis_
provided in the publication includes this character: "hallux more than
half the length of pedal digit II, proportionally shorter (sic) than
in _C. sanctus_, _C. dui_, and _E. zhengi_."  This is obviously a
typo; here the authors would have meant that the hallux of
_Changchengornis_ was *longer*.  In fact, "hallux proportionally
longer than in _C. sanctus_" is included as part of the original
diagnosis of _Changchengornis_ (Ji et al. 1999 JVP 19: 1-7). This is
important, because the proportionally longer hallux of
_Changchengornis_ is among the characters that show that
_Changchengornis_ likely had quite a different ecology to
_Confuciusornis_ - along with the strongly downcurved beak, and very
short-and-high mandible of _Changchengornis_.  The feet of
_Changchengornis_ were better at grasping compared to other
confuciusornithids, which might suggest better perching ability -
though not specialized for scansoriality or arboreality (as noted by
Ji et al. 1999).  IMHO, it's worth entertaining the possibility that
_Chengchengornis_ used its grasping feet for seizing terrestrial prey,
in light of recent evidence that confuciusornithids were predators
(Elzanowski et al. 2018.DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2018.1439832).





On Wed, May 30, 2018 at 2:40 PM, Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Ben Creisler
> bcreisler@gmail.com
>
>
> A new paper with free pdf:
>
>
>
>
> WANG Min, Jingmai O'CONNOR & ZHOU Zhong-He (2018)
> A taxonomical revision of the Confuciusornithiformes (Aves: Pygostylia).
> Vertebrata PalAsiatica (advance online publication)
> DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.1000-3118.180530
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.ivpp.ac.cn_cbw_gjzdwxb_pressonline_201805_P020180530381448415816.pdf&d=DwIBaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=1EqNHA8qwA3MQpe8i-KXmWNEoLi-r5h-c7bOrtWpmLA&s=cA0r4lQCFrPICNaFCKZvcX-w2OCM60opEWczjW8e-x8&e=
>
>
> Supplement
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.ivpp.ac.cn_cbw_gjzdwxb_pressonline_201805_P020180530368244000774.pdf&d=DwIBaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=1EqNHA8qwA3MQpe8i-KXmWNEoLi-r5h-c7bOrtWpmLA&s=3QsDw6c_rgGucep5u655Mlik9PV-5u-K6PYLZT6t91k&e=
>
>
>
> The Confuciusornithiformes is a basal clade of Early Cretaceous birds that
> includes the oldest and most basal birds with a toothless beak and an
> abbreviated bony tail. Over the last two decades, thousands of specimens
> have been collected, more than for any other group of Mesozoic birds or
> non-avian dinosaurs. Ten species separated into four genera have been
> erected with limited taxonomic phylogenetic scrutiny. Here, we perform a
> comparative study of these ten species, and demonstrate that most of these
> taxa were originally diagnosed by characters that prove to be either
> preservational artifacts, intraspecific variations, subject to ontogenetic
> variation, or widely distributed among the Confuciusornithiformes or a more
> phylogenetically inclusive group. Our results suggest that 'Confuciusornis
> suniae', 'C. feducciai', 'Jinzhouornis yixianensis', 'J. zhangjiyingia', and
> 'C. jianchangensis' are all junior synonyms of C. sanctus. 'C. chuonzhous'
> lacks autapomorphies of C. sanctus and is referred to Confuciusornithiformes
> incertae sedis. Our taxonomic reappraisal of published materials indicates
> that the Confuciusornithiformes consists of one family, three genera, and
> four species: C. sanctus, C. dui, Changchengornis hengdaoziensis, and
> Eoconfuciusornis zhengi, for which we provide revised diagnoses.
>
>