Protoavis texensis paratype (TTU P 9201), a small individual.[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Reptilia
Clade:
Neodiapsida
Clade:
incertae sedis
Genus:
†Protoavis
Type species
†Protoavis texensis
Chatterjee, 1991
Protoavis (meaning "first bird") is a problematic taxon known from fragmentary remains from Late Triassic Norian stage deposits near Post, Texas. The animal's true classification has been the subject of much controversy, and there are many different interpretations of what the taxon actually is. When it was first described, the fossils were described as being from a primitive bird which, if the identification is valid, would push back avian origins some 60-75 million years.
The original describer of Protoavis texensis, Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University, interpreted the type specimen to have come from a single animal, specifically a 35 cm tall bird that lived in what is now Texas, USA, around 210 million years ago. Though it existed far earlier than Archaeopteryx, its skeletal structure is more bird-like. Protoavis has been reconstructed as a carnivorous bird that had teeth on the tip of its jaws and eyes located at the front of the skull, suggesting a nocturnal or crepuscular lifestyle. Reconstructions usually depict it with feathers, as Chatterjee originally interpreted structures on the arm to be quill knobs, the attachment point for flight feathers found in some modern birds and non-avian dinosaurs. However, re-evaluation of the fossil material by subsequent authors such as Lawrence Witmer have been inconclusive regarding whether or not these structures are actual quill knobs.
However, this description of Protoavis assumes that Protoavis has been correctly interpreted as a bird. Many palaeontologists doubt that Protoavis is a bird, or that all remains assigned to it even come from a single species, because of the circumstances of its discovery and unconvincing avian synapomorphies in its fragmentary material. When they were found at the Tecovas and Bull Canyon Formations in the Texas panhandle in 1973, in a sedimentary strata of a Triassic river delta, the fossils were a jumbled cache of disarticulated bones that may reflect an incident of mass mortality following a flash flood.
^Cite error: The named reference Chatterjee1991 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
description of Protoavis assumes that Protoavis has been correctly interpreted as a bird. Many palaeontologists doubt that Protoavis is a bird, or that...
included controversial specimens Chatterjee identified as being avian (Protoavis). The identification of these specimens as avian would push back the origin...
understood Alwalkeria as a link between herrerasaurids and the genus Protoavis, and hence assigned it to Herrerasauridae based on features of the femur...
and how the very first bird might have looked. It may be predated by Protoavis texensis, though the fragmentary nature of this fossil leaves it open...
misattribution of what may be a drepanosaur skull to the would-be "first bird," Protoavis. Drepanosaurs featured a suite of bizarre, almost chameleon-like skeletal...
1976 published by Dieter Stefan Peters. In 1991 and 1996 "proavis" or "protoavis" models were proposed by respectively Samuel Tarsitano and Alan Feduccia...
intermediary Temporal paradox (paleontology) List of fossil bird genera Protoavis texensis, a putative but possibly chimeric Triassic bird Zhang, H.; Wang...
non-dinosaurian archosauriform Protiguanodon – junior synonym of Psittacosaurus Protoavis – described as a bird, probably a chimera including theropod dinosaur...
(1998). "Reduced cladistic consensus methods and the avian affinities of Protoavis and Avimimus". Archaeopteryx. 16: 123–129. Turner, Alan H.; Pol, Diego;...
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