Sauriurae (meaning "lizard tails" in Greek) is a now-deprecated subclass of birds created by Ernst Haeckel in 1866. It was intended to include Archaeopteryx and distinguish it from all other birds then known, which he grouped in the sister-group Ornithurae ("bird tails"). The distinction Haeckel referred to in this name is that Archaeopteryx possesses a long, reptile-like tail, while all other birds known to him had short tails with few vertebrae, fused at the end into a pygostyle.[1] The unit was not much referred to, and when Hans Friedrich Gadow in 1893 erected Archaeornithes for basically the same fossils, this became the common name for the early reptile-like grade of birds.
Ji Qiang and Larry Martin have continued to refer to the Sauriurae as a valid natural group.[2] However, researchers like Jacques Gauthier (2001)[3] and Julia Clarke (2002)[4] have found that fossils found after Haeckel's time have bridged the gap between long and short-tailed Avialae. In their view, any grouping of avialans with long tails must exclude some of their descendants—making Sauriurae a paraphyletic and, thus, an invalid group under current systems of phylogenetic nomenclature.
^Haeckel, Ernst. (1866) "Generelle Morphologie der Organismen" Berlin: Georg Reimer. 462 pp.
^Ji, Q., and Ji, S. (1996). "On discovery of the earliest bird fossil in China and the origin of birds." Chinese Geology10 (233): 30-33.
^Gauthier, Jacques, de Queiroz, Kevin. (2001) "Feathered dinosaurs, flying dinosaurs, crown dinosaurs, and the name 'Aves'". in "New Perspective on the Origin and Evolution of Birds: Proceedings of the International Symposium in Honor of John H. Ostrom" Yale Peabody Museum. Yale University. New Haven, Conn. USA
^Clarke, Julia A., Norell, Mark. A. (2002) "The Morphology and Phylogenetic Position of Apsaravis ukhaana from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia" American Museum Novitates, No. 3387, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024.
Sauriurae (meaning "lizard tails" in Greek) is a now-deprecated subclass of birds created by Ernst Haeckel in 1866. It was intended to include Archaeopteryx...
provided evidence that is directly relevant to at least four issues: The Sauriurae are a putative clade of primitive birds that includes Archaeopteryx, Confuciusornis...
from Archaeopteryx, which Haeckel placed in another new group called Sauriurae. Said simply, modern birds have short, fused pygostyle tails, while Archaeopteryx...
1866 Ernst Haeckel created the now-deprecated subclass of birds known as Sauriurae (meaning "lizard tails" in Greek). It was intended to include Archaeopteryx...
"The Chinese early bird Confuciusornis and the paraphyletic status of Sauriurae". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 17 (3): 37A. doi:10.1080/02724634...
family (Yandangithidae) and order (Yandangithiformes) in the subclass Sauriurae of the class Aves. In fact, they considered that it was a direct descendant...
"The Chinese early bird Confuciusornis and the paraphyletic status of Sauriurae". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 17 (3): 37A. doi:10.1080/02724634...
Sinosauropterygiformes, family Sinosauropterygidae, within the subclass Sauriurae. These proposals have not been accepted, and Sinosauropteryx is generally...
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