Chinese and Russian paleontologists have described two new species of fossil birds from the famous Jehol Cretaceous site in northeastern China. The names of ancient birds perpetuated two of the greatest experts on fossil birds - Russian Evgeniy Kurochkin and American Larry Martin.
Parabohaiornis martini.
Reconstruction: Eloy Manzanero
The Jehe Formation is extremely rich in well-preserved vertebrate fossils that were part of the Early Cretaceous biota. Among them are often the remains of toothy birds that belonged to the enantiornithines - a group of early birds that are related, but in no case are the ancestors of modern birds (Neornithine).
The first of the new species of enantiornis is called Longusunguis kurochkini, which roughly translates into Russian as “Kurochkin’s long-claw.” It is represented by an almost complete skeleton of a young individual, whose skull has been separated from the rest of the skeleton. Longuzungwis was a medium-sized bird with powerful conical teeth and really long claws.
The second bird was named Parabohaiornis martini. Its generic name means “similar to Bohaiornis,” another enantiornis already known to science. Here, scientists were lucky to stumble upon two skeletons at once, one of which also belonged to an immature bird (this was established by the fact that a number of bones were not yet fused with each other), and the second - an adult. True, he did not have a skull or wings below the elbow joints.
Both new birds were apparently closely related to each other systematically and are closely related to Bohaiornis, Shenqiornis, Sulcavis and Zhouornis. Chinese paleontologists Wang Min and Jingmai O'Connor from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, and their Russian colleague Nikita Zelenkov from the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, classify all these birds as belonging to the family Bohaiornithidae.
Bohayornithids were distinguished by powerful teeth and strong paws with large curved claws. Apparently, they occupied a common ecological niche, the parameters of which are not yet possible to specify. Strong and long paws are typical for land dwellers, but long, curved claws do not fit well with a terrestrial lifestyle. Such claws are usually found on birds that spend a lot of time on tree branches. However, arboreal forms usually have very specific adaptations in the structure of their paws, which are completely absent in Bohaiornithidae.
An additional mystery is represented by powerful, strong teeth, indicating that bohayornithids were durophages, that is, they fed on food with a strong shell or shell. At the same time, sharp claws would be more suitable for predators, which in turn contradicts the general proportions of the limbs.
Article published by Vertebrata PalAsiatica magazine