#changzuiornis angmi

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Changzuiornis ahgmi

By José Carlos Cortés on @quetzalcuetzpalin-art​

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Name: Changzuiornis ahgmi

Name Meaning: The Longest Bird

First Described: 2016 

Described By: Huang et al. 

Classification: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae

Changzuiornis is a recently described Ornithuran from the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, China, living about 122 million years ago, in the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous. It was, thus, almost a modern bird, with strong flight ability like living dinosaurs. It had many teeth, however, in its lower jaw, though they were very small and this bird was on the line towards the evolution of modern bird beaks. Interestingly enough, it had an extremely long snout, which made up 68% of the total length of the skull and lead to the name of this dinosaur. It was probably the same dinosaur as Juehuaornis, much like Dingavis, and since Juehuaornis came first, the name Changzuiornis would be dropped. It probably had a unique ecological niche in the Jehol Biota, though what that niche is hasn’t really been hypothesized. 

Source:

Huang, J., X. Wang, Y. Hu, J. Liu, J. A. Peteya, J. A. Clarke. 2016. A new ornithurine from the EarlY Cretaceous of China sheds light on the evoluiton of early ecological and cranial diversity in birds. PeerJ 4: e1765. 

Shout out goes to @jake29usmc!