#Yuanchuavis

[impulseimpact]

time for more spream

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

artwork by @quetzalpali-art

[daeva-agas]

When I see the fossils of Confuciornis and Yuanchuavis, I keep thinking "IDk, man, I think y'all have discovered that the Feng Huang is real".

None of the articles I've seen ever mentioned that, though. Like, maybe it's mentioned in the Chinese-language articles. Yuanchuavis is named after the mythical bird, which the English article mentioned, but the article didn't say "Maybe the ancient people weren't making things up, and they were actually just describing this bird".

I mean, hey, maybe the people just imagined the magical things about the birds because of coincidence, or the bird just having a unique habit or living habits so people thought it was unusual/weird.

Wouldn't it be funny if the fossil actually was what people in the ye olde days call Yuanchu/Feng Huang/Luan/etc? Because the current artistic rendering of it looks completely different than the ancient art and paintings, and it would just be crazy if the ancient paintings are actually "correct" the whole time.

[gaetaniu]

Una nuova ricerca getta ulteriore luce sull'evoluzione del cranio degli uccelli moderni

Una nuova ricerca getta ulteriore luce sull’evoluzione del cranio degli uccelli moderni

Un’illustrazione che mostra il possibile aspetto di Yuanchuavis kompsosoura in vita. Oggi la maggior parte degli uccelli è in grado di sollevare il becco superiore indipendentemente dalla scatola cranica, grazie a una serie di articolazioni mobili e zone di flessione nel cranio. La tomografia computerizzata del cranio di Yuanchuavis kompsosoura, un uccello dentato vissuto circa 120 milioni di…

[newswireml]

New Research Sheds More Light on Evolution of Modern Bird Skull#Research #Sheds #Light #Evolution #Modern #Bird #Skull

New Research Sheds More Light on Evolution of Modern Bird Skull#Research #Sheds #Light #Evolution #Modern #Bird #Skull

Most birds today can lift the upper beak independently of the brain case, enabled by a series of mobile joints and bending zones in the skull. The computed tomography of the skull of Yuanchuavis kompsosoura, a toothed bird that lived approximately 120 million years ago in what is now northeastern China, shows for the first time that the joints were still absent, but also hints at how they may…

[albertonykus]

Added Yuanchuavis to the lineup of feathered dinosaur tails. This is another one for which I'd be tempted to redraw the entire thing if I were to update it again...

Full description

[new-dinosaurs]

Yuanchuavis kompsosoura Wang et al., 2021 (new genus and species)

(Type specimen of Yuanchuavis kompsosoura, from Wang et al., 2021)

Meaning of name: Yuanchuavis = yuanchu [bird from Chinese mythology] bird; kompsosoura = elegant tail

Age: Early Cretaceous (Aptian), between 119–123 million years ago

Where found: Jiufotang Formation, Liaoning, China

How much is known: Partial skeleton of one individual with preserved feathers, missing the forelimbs.

Notes: Yuanchuavis was an enantiornithean, a group of bird-like dinosaurs from the Cretaceous. Unlike modern birds, most enantiornitheans do not appear to have had a fan-shaped array of feathers on their tail, instead usually lacking long tail feathers entirely or having only one or two pairs of elongated tail feathers. Yuanchuavis, on the other hand, preserves at least eight flight feathers on its tail, making it one of the few known exceptions to this trend.

Similar to what is seen in some other enantiornitheans, however, the central pair of tail feathers in Yuanchuavis was highly elongated, being longer than the entire rest of its body. Based on the shape of preserved melanosomes (cell bodies that contain melanin pigment), this central pair of tail feathers was likely colored differently from the rest of the tail. The authors infer that the central pair may have been black, whereas the shorter tail feathers may have been gray, though, as they note, this method of estimating coloration in fossil animals is controversial.

The form of the tail feathering in Yuanchuavis adds to the diversity of known tail feather arrangements in enantiornitheans, and is consistent with the hypothesis that enantiornitheans primarily used their tail feathers in visual display.

Reference: Wang, M., J.K. O’Connor, T. Zhao, Y. Pan, X. Zheng, X. Wang, and Z. Zhou. 2021. An Early Cretaceous enantiornithine bird with a pintail. Current Biology advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.044

[extinctworld-ua]

Yuanchuavis

Yuanchuavis (що означає “птах Юаньчу”, на честь міфічного китайського птаха) – вимерлий рід пегорнітидних (Pengornithidae) птахів з групи Enantiornithes. Його типовий і єдиний зразок, IVPP V27883, є голотипом для єдиного виду, Y. kompsosoura (що означає “красивий хвіст”). Він був відновлений із формації Цзюфофанг у Китаї та зберіг скам’янілий хвіст з довгими хвостовими перами.

Повний текст на сайті "Вимерлий світ":

https://extinctworld.in.ua/yuanchuavis/

[sciencespies]

Spectacular fossil shows a 120-million-year-old bird with a highly impractical tail

https://sciencespies.com/nature/spectacular-fossil-shows-a-120-million-year-old-bird-with-a-highly-impractical-tail/

Spectacular fossil shows a 120-million-year-old bird with a highly impractical tail

Nothing quite says ‘look at me!’ like an extravagant set of tail feathers. Plenty of modern birds sacrifice agility to a chance to grab attention, but examples of among relatives in the fossil record have been harder to come by.

Scientists have now described the remains of a 120-million-year-old feathered dinosaur roughly the size of a bluejay, one with an extremely long and extravagant behind.

The remarkably-detailed fossil was found in northeastern China and named Yuanchuavis (Yuanchuavis kompsosoura) after a phoenix-like bird in Chinese mythology.

It’s the first time a bird-like fossil from the Mesozoic era has been discovered with such a complex array of tail feathers, featuring both a grey fantail and a pair of long black plumes.

The two extensive, dark feathers stretch roughly 30 centimeters (12 inches), about 1.3 times longer than the bird’s body. Together with the fan of shorter feathers, they create a pintail that the authors say “strongly resembles” those of modern sunbirds and quetzals, which use their ostentatious behinds to attract mates.

The discovery suggests even the earliest birds were using their feathers to do something similar.

But being sexy can have its burdens. A tail as large and flashy as the one seen on Yuanchuavis would have made flying and evading predators a whole lot trickier.

Clearly, the risks of the booty call were worth it.

“Scientists call a trait like a big fancy tail an ‘honest signal,’ because it is detrimental, so if an animal with it is able to survive with that handicap, that’s a sign that it’s really fit,” explains paleontologist Jingmai O’Connor from Chicago’s Field Museum.

“A female bird would look at a male with goofily burdensome tail feathers and think, ‘Dang, if he’s able to survive even with such a ridiculous tail, he must have really good genes.'”

The fossil of Yuanchuavis with a corresponding illustration of the tail feathers. (Wang et al., Current Biology, 2021)

Yuanchuavis belongs to a group of Mesozoic avians called enantiornithes or “opposite birds”, which lie on their own evolutionary branch somewhere in between the ancestor of modern birds and extinct non-avian dinosaurs.

Enantiornithes are actually a sister clade to ornithuromorpha, to which all living birds belong. After coexisting side by side for about 65 million years, only one of these clades survived the mass extinction event that wiped out most dinosaurs.

Figuring out why one clade of avians survived while the other didn’t could allow us to better understand how modern birds have been so successful at getting by in this world.

Way back in the Mesozoic era, the ancestors of modern birds did not seem to have long tail ornaments like those found on Yuanchuavis, although they do show fan tails in the fossil record.

In fact, for many years, fan tails were thought to have evolved exclusively in ornithuromorphs. Recently, however, several fossils of enantiornithes have been found with this feature as well.

Yuanchuavis is even more peculiar. Its tail’s mix of fantail and paired plumes is a feature no other bird in its clade has been found to possess.

The authors can’t be sure why Yuanchuavis evolved such a complex tail, but given how aerodynamically inconvenient the feathers would have been, they suspect these plumages were shaped by sexual selection.

In a densely forested environment, where most enantiornithes are thought to have lived, there are lots of things to hide and flee behind. A cumbersome tail might not be so bad if it’s pretty enough. Today, that’s where we find most birds of paradise.

But in the more open, semi-aquatic environments where most ornithuromorphs in the Mesozoic lived, the trade-off between sex and survival might not have been as worthwhile.

The differing landscapes could be part of the reason why enantiornithines seemed to have evolved pintails earlier than their sister clade.

“It is well known that sexual selection plays a central role in speciation and recognition in modern birds, attesting to the enormous extravagant feathers, ornaments, vocals, and dances,” explains Wang.

“However, it is notoriously difficult to tell if a given fossilized structure is shaped by sexual selection, considering the imperfect nature of the fossil record. Therefore, the well-preserved tail feathers in this new fossil bird provide great new information about how sexual selection has shaped the avian tail from their earliest stage.”

The study was published in Current Biology.

#Nature

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

my untreated sleep apnea was acting up buT I RETURN FROM MY ETERNAL NONRESTFUL SLUMBER to bring you our next dinosaur group race

enant groups based on Wang et al 2022 for my sanity

[gaetaniu]

Un fossile cinese mostra che il cranio degli uccelli moderni si è evoluto da una miscela di caratteristiche di dinosauri e uccelli

Un fossile cinese mostra che il cranio degli uccelli moderni si è evoluto da una miscela di caratteristiche di dinosauri e uccelli

Ricostruzione digitale del cranio dell’uccello Yuanchuavis kompsosoura di 120 milioni di anni fa, proveniente dalla Cina nord-orientale. Gli scienziati dell’Istituto di Paleontologia dei Vertebrati e Paleoantropologia dell’Accademia Cinese delle Scienze (IVPP) di Pechino e del Field Museum of Natural History di Chicago hanno rivelato che gli uccelli hanno mantenuto tratti chiave dinosauriani per…

[albertonykus]

In the wake of 2021, added Yuanchuavis and modified Eoconfuciusornis for the paleocolor chart.

More detailed description

[gaetaniu]

Scoperta una nuova specie di uccello dal periodo cretaceo con le piume della coda molto elaborate

Scoperta una nuova specie di uccello dal periodo cretaceo con le piume della coda molto elaborate

Un’illustrazione che mostra come poteva essere Yuanchuavis kompsosoura in vita. Paleontologi in Cina hanno identificato una nuova specie di uccello pengornithid enantiornithine con un paio di piume della coda molto elaborate. Gli enantiorniti sono il gruppo di uccelli mesozoici di maggior successo, e rappresentano probabilmente la prima radiazione aviaria globale. Sono noti esclusivamente dal…