Songlingornithidae

Songlingornithidae is a family of basal euornithean dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation and the Yixian Formation, dating to the early Barremian and Aptian ages, 125–120 million years ago.

Quick Facts Scientific classification, Type species ...

Songlingornithids Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 125–120 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Holotype of Yixianornis grabaui, Paleozoological Museum of China
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Clade:	Avialae
Clade:	†Yanornithiformes
Family:	†Songlingornithidae Hou, 1997
Type species
†Songlingornis linghensis Hou, 1997
Genera
†Piscivoravis? †Songlingornis †Yanornis? †Yixianornis?
Synonyms
Yanornithidae? Zhou & Zhang, 2001 Aberratiodontuidae? Gong, Hou & Wang, 2004 Yixianornithidae? Zhang & Zhou, 2006

Close

The family Songlingornithidae was first named by Hou in 1997 to contain the type genus, Songlingornis.^[1] Clarke et al. (2006) was the first to find a close relationship between Songlingornis and the "yanornithids".^[2]

The name was originally coined to reflect a close relationship between the two supposedly similar (but poorly preserved) genera Songlingornis and Chaoyangia. However, subsequent studies found that Chaoyangia was probably not closely related to Songlingornis. Instead, Songlingornis was found to be closely related to another group which had been given the name Yanornithidae—the name Songlingornithidae, having been named first, took precedence.^[3] Some later studies have also placed the hongshanornithids in this group.^[3][4] At least one study has found the Late Cretaceous Mongolian avialan Hollanda to be a member of the group as well.^[5]