Protopteryx fengningensis
By José Carlos Cortés on @quetzalcuetzpalin-art
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Name: Protopteryx fengningensis
Name Meaning: Primitive Feather
First Described: 2000
Described By: Zhang & Zhou
Classification: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostylia, Ornithothoraces, Enantiornithes
Protopteryx is an Opposite Bird from the Yixian Formation of Hebei Province, China, living about 131 million years ago, in the Hauterivian age of the Early Cretaceous. It is known from an almost complete skeleton on a slab that also preserves feathered integument - and its mixture of feathers and scales was, at the time, an indication of importance; however, since then discoveries of non-Avialan theropods with similar integument have essentially rendered Protopteryx run-of-the-millin terms of its mixture of feathers and scales; and any indication that it may have had of a non-dinosaurian origin of birds has been thoroughly disproven by the sheer amount of evidence demonstrating birds as living theropod dinosaurs. At any rate, it was a small but not terribly so bird, about the size of a starling with a body length of 16 centimeters and a wingspan of 33 centimeters. It had a round head and a pointed snout, with teeth only in the tips of the jaws. Its short and broad wings would have been good for maneuvering in its forested environment, and it is one of the earliest known birds that definitely could power its own flight. It didn’t have a tail fan like modern birds, so it would have been more clumsy in flight than modern birds, but of course avian evolution was a bit of a learning curve. It had two long feathers extending from its short tail, again probably for display.
Sources:
Martyniuk, M. P. 2012. A Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and other Winged Dinosaurs. Pan Aves; Vernon, New Jersey.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protopteryx
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