Zhongornis
By Scott Reid on @drawingwithdinosaurs
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Name: Zhongornis haoae
Name Meaning: Intermediate Bird
First Described: 2008
Described By: Gao et al.
Classification: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda
Zhongornis is a possible Avebrevicaudan - so more derived than Avialans like Archaeopteryx and Jeholornis - from the Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China, and it lived about 122 million years ago, in the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous. It i known from a fairly complete skeleton, and a juvenile one at that - so even though the skeleton was about 8 cm long, it would have gotten bigger as an adult. Though original analyses found it as an Avebrevicaudan, other researchers have found it to be earlier derived - similar to Scansoriopterygids like Yi and Epidexipteryx, so the jury is still out there. This is largely based on how many tail vertebrae it had - originally it was thought to only have 13, far less than the 22 in Archaeopteryx, making it closer to short-tailed birds than earlier derived Avialans. However, later research suggests that it may have had 20 vertebrae in its tail - making its tail much longer, and potentially reassinging its phylogenetic position. This hasn’t been tested, and more research is needed to firmly place Zhongornis in the Dinosaur family tree. It also had intermeidate finger bones, and its last four tails form a continuous structure, much like in the Pygostyle of short-tailed birds (who fuse their short tails into this structure). This indicates that, if Zhongornis is an Avebrevicaudan, it shows an interesting intermediary in bird evolution.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhongornis
Shout out goes to @roflysst!
