Collage of four extant birds. Clockwise from top-left: Spanish imperial eagle (Aquila adalberti), common ostrich (Struthio camelus), mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), and common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Clade:
Dinosauria
Clade:
Saurischia
Clade:
Theropoda
Clade:
Pennaraptora
Clade:
Paraves
Clade:
Avialae Gauthier, 1986
Subgroups
†Alcmonavis
†Balaur
†Cretaaviculus
†Dalianraptor
†Fukuipteryx
†Gargantuavis
†Overoraptor?
†Rahonavis?
†Yandangornis?
†Archaeopterygidae?
†Anchiornithidae?[3]
†Scansoriopterygidae?[3]
Euavialae
†Jeholornithidae
Avebrevicauda
Pygostylia
†Omnivoropterygiformes
Avialae ("bird wings") is a clade containing the only living dinosaurs, the birds, and their ancestors. It is usually defined as all theropod dinosaurs more closely related to birds (Aves) than to deinonychosaurs, though alternative definitions are occasionally used (see below).
Archaeopteryx lithographica, from the late Jurassic Period Solnhofen Formation of Germany, is usually considered the earliest known avialan which may have had the capability of powered flight,[4] a minority of studies have suggested that it might have been a deinonychosaur instead.[5] Several older (but non flight-capable) possible avialans are known from the late Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of China, dated to about 160 million years ago.[6][7]
^Schweigert, G. (2007). "Ammonite biostratigraphy as a tool for dating Upper Jurassic lithographic limestones from South Germany – first results and open questions" (PDF). Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. 245 (1): 117–125. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2007/0245-0117. S2CID 140597349.
^Zhang, H.; Wang, M.; Liu, X. (2008). "Constraints on the upper boundary age of the Tiaojishan Formation volcanic rocks in West Liaoning-North Hebei by LA-ICP-MS dating". Chinese Science Bulletin. 53 (22): 3574–3584. Bibcode:2008SciBu..53.3574Z. doi:10.1007/s11434-008-0287-4.
^ abCau, A.; Beyrand, V.; Voeten, D.; Fernandez, V.; Tafforeau, P.; Stein, K.; Barsbold, R.; Tsogtbaatar, K.; Currie, P.; Godefroit, P. (2017). "Synchrotron scanning reveals amphibious ecomorphology in a new clade of bird-like dinosaurs". Nature. 552 (7685): 395–399. Bibcode:2017Natur.552..395C. doi:10.1038/nature24679. PMID 29211712. S2CID 4471941.
^Alonso, P. D.; Milner, A. C.; Ketcham, R. A.; Cookson, M. J.; Rowe, T. B. (2004). "The avian nature of the brain and inner ear of Archaeopteryx" (PDF). Nature. 430 (7000): 666–669. Bibcode:2004Natur.430..666A. doi:10.1038/nature02706. PMID 15295597. S2CID 4391019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-02-09. Supplementary info
^Hartman, Scott; Mortimer, Mickey; Wahl, William R.; Lomax, Dean R.; Lippincott, Jessica; Lovelace, David M. (2019-07-10). "A new paravian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America supports a late acquisition of avian flight". PeerJ. 7: e7247. doi:10.7717/peerj.7247. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 6626525. PMID 31333906.
^Hu, D.; Hou, L.; Zhang, L. & Xu, X. (2009). "A pre-Archaeopteryx troodontid theropod from China with long feathers on the metatarsus". Nature. 461 (7264): 640–643. Bibcode:2009Natur.461..640H. doi:10.1038/nature08322. PMID 19794491. S2CID 205218015.
^Liu Y.-Q.; Kuang H.-W.; Jiang X.-J.; Peng N.; Xu H.; Sun H.-Y. (2012). "Timing of the earliest known feathered dinosaurs and transitional pterosaurs older than the Jehol Biota". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 323–325: 1–12. Bibcode:2012PPP...323....1L. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.01.017.
Avialae ("bird wings") is a clade containing the only living dinosaurs, the birds, and their ancestors. It is usually defined as all theropod dinosaurs...
troodontids, while the body mass continued to decrease in many forms within Avialae. Fossils show that all the earliest members of Paraves found to date started...
related to them than to Ornithomimus velox. It contains the major subgroups Avialae, Dromaeosauridae, Troodontidae, Oviraptorosauria, and Therizinosauria....
known only from fossils, and assigning them, instead, to the broader group Avialae, on the principle that a clade based on extant species should be limited...
popular reference books as the oldest-known bird (member of the group Avialae). Older potential avialans have since been identified, including Anchiornis...
coelurosaurs, Phil Senter found Scansoriopteryx to be a member of the clade Avialae. This view was supported by a second phylogenetic analysis performed by...
Longrich, N. R. (2017). "Maaqwi cascadensis: A large, marine diving bird (Avialae: Ornithurae) from the Upper Cretaceous of British Columbia, Canada". PLOS...
phylogenetic taxonomy, and systematics of Ichthyornis and Apatornis (Avialae: Ornithurae)". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 286:...
This is an incomplete list that briefly describes vertebrates that were extant during the Campanian, a stage of the Late Cretaceous Period which extended...
Archaeopterygidae, or an assemblage of dinosaurs that are an evolutionary grade within Avialae or Paraves. Anchiornithids share many general features with other paravians...
example, used the term "protobird" for primitive members of the clade Avialae. In this sense, protobirds would include animals like Confuciusornis, Sapeornis...
ornithomimosaurians. Dromaeosaurids share many features with early birds (clade Avialae or Aves). The precise nature of their relationship to birds has undergone...
ancestors; whether they are not closer to other theropods groups than to the Avialae remains to be thoroughly tested (see Xiaotingia). †Anchiornis huxleyi Xu...
the ornithischians, then in the lineage of saurischians including birds (Avialae), and lastly in the therizinosaurians. This would then be an example of...
of climbing and gliding dinosaurs Other (extinct) members of the clade Avialae, perhaps also other Maniraptorans The Flying Dinosaur, a roller coaster...
Xu et al. therefore (re)defined the concepts of Deinonychosauria and Avialae to the extent that Archaeopteryx and Xiaotingia belonged to the Deinonychosauria...
member of the family Scansoriopterygidae and as a basal member of the clade Avialae; this was confirmed by the subsequent analysis conducted by Hu et al. (2009)...
closer to Avialae than to dromaeosaurines. A large analysis published by Agnolín and Novas (2013) recovered Rahonavis as closer to Avialae than to Dromaeosauridae...
concluded that it was an early member of the group Avialae, along with Archaeopteryx. Members of Avialae, called avialans, are all more closely related to...
from dinosaurs that are very primitive members of the bird lineage, or Avialae. The most primitive example is Epidexipteryx, which had a short tail with...
Phylogenetic Taxonomy, and Systematics of Ichthyornis and Apatornis (Avialae: Ornithurae)" (PDF). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History...
extant beetle. Perle et al. mistakenly described Mononykus as a member of Avialae, one more advanced than Archaeopteryx. They argued that the family Alvarezsauridae...
ISBN 978-0-595-49596-2. OCLC 757322661. Padian, Kevin (2004). "Basal Avialae". In Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; Osmólska, Halszka (eds.). The...
If the latter classification is used then the larger group is termed Avialae. Currently, the relationship between dinosaurs, Archaeopteryx, and modern...
disputed status (avian? or non-avian?, where "avian" refers to the clade Avialae), as well as purely vernacular terms. The list includes all commonly accepted...
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