Paraves
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Paravians Fossil range: Jurassic - Recent |
||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| Sub-groups | ||||||||||||||
Paraves is a stem–based clade containing birds (clade Aves) and other closely related dinosaurs. The paravians include the Avialae, such as Archaeopteryx, and the Deinonychosauria, which includes the dromaeosaurids and troodontids.
The name Paraves was initially coined by Paul Sereno in 1997.[1] The clade was defined by Sereno in 1998 as a stem–based clade containing all Maniraptora closer to Neornithes (which includes all the birds living in the world today) than to Oviraptor.[2]
The ancestral Paravian is a hypothetical animal; the last common ancestor of birds, dromaeosaurids, and troodontids. Little can be said with certainty about this animal. The work of Xu et al. (2003) suggested that this paravian possibly was arboreal and could glide[3]. The work of Turner et al. (2007) suggested that the ancestral paravian could not glide or fly, and that it was most likely small ( around 65 centimeters long and 600-700 grams in mass).[4].
[edit] References
- ^ Sereno, P. C., 1997, "The origin and evolution of dinosaurs", Annual Review of Earth & Planetary Sciences 25:435- 489. (21)
- ^ Sereno, P. C., 1998, "A rationale for phylogenetic definitions, with application to the higher level taxonomy of Dinosauria", Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen 210:41-83. (23)
- ^ Xing, X., Zhou, Z., Wang, X., Kuang, X., Zhang, F., and Du, X. (2003). "Four-winged dinosaurs from China." Nature, 421: 335–340.
- ^ Turner, Alan H.; Pol, Diego; Clarke, Julia A.; Erickson, Gregory M.; and Norell, Mark.. (2007). " A basal dromaeosaurid and size evolution preceding avian flight". Science, 317: 1378-1381. doi:10.1126/science.1144066
