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Eoconfuciusornis zhengi
Illustration by Michael Rothman RothmanIllustration.com
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Abstract
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: Confuciusornis sanctus, C. dui, Changchengornis hengdaoziensis, and Eoconfuciusornis zhengi, for which we provide revised diagnoses.
Key words: Cretaceous, Aves, Confuciusornithiformes, Confuciusornis, taxonomy, phylogeny
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| Male and female Eoconfuciusornis zhengi in level flight over a lacustrine habitat, Early Cretaceous, NE China.
Illustration by Michael Rothman
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Conclusion:
Reexamination of all currently recognized species of the Confuciusornithiformes supports widespread conjecture in the literature that most taxa are invalid due to inadequate diagnoses, based on characters that are either widely distributed among confuciusornithiforms, taphonomic artifacts, points of intraspecific variation, or simply misinterpreted. ‘C. feducciai’, ‘C. suniae’, ‘J. yixianensis’, ‘J. zhangjiyingia’, and ‘C. jianchangensis’ should be regarded as junior synonyms of C. sanctus. ‘C. chuonzhous’ is a nomen dubium and should be referred to Confuciusornithiformes incertae sedis. The recently described BMNHC-PH870 is certainly a confuciusornithiform, but cannot be adequately diagnosed at this time without the discovery of more material to clarify potential ontogenetic differences between this specimen and other confuciusornithiforms from the Huajiying Formation. Therefore, BMNHC-PH870 is regarded as Confuciusornithiformes incertae sedis. Under the present taxonomic revision, the Confuciusornithiformes consists of one family, three genera, and four species, C. sanctus, C. dui, Ch. hengdaoziensis, and E. zhengi. The actual diversity of the Confuciusornithiformes is in all probability higher. However, the identification of new species needs to be well supported by valid diagnostic features that clearly distinguish the putative new taxa from existing confuciusornithiforms. This taxonomic revision clarifies the current diversity and provides a launching point for future studies attempting to tackle the thousands of unstudied confuciusornithiforms in collections throughout China.
Wang Min, Jingmai O’Connor and Zhou Zhong-He. 2019. A Taxonomical Revision of the Confuciusornithiformes (Aves: Pygostylia). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 57(1): 1–37. ivpp.cas.cn/cbw/gjzdwxb/xbwzxz/201811/t20181103_5160014.html