What is the controversy about Protoavis?
What is the controversy about Protoavis?
The taxonomy of Protoavis is controversial, with several palaeornithologists considering it to be an early ancestor of modern birds, while most others in the palaeontological community regard it as a chimaera, a mixture of several specimens.
Is Archaeopteryx the oldest bird?
Archaeopteryx, genus of feathered dinosaur that was once thought to be the oldest known fossil bird.
Which is the first bird on earth?
Archaeopteryx
First Bird. Archaeopteryx is the earliest undisputed bird. A weak flyer, it shared characteristics with its dinosaur ancestors. Fossils show that Archaeopteryx , like dinosaurs, had teeth, a long bony tail, and grasping claws on its wings, but also had a bird-style hip and feathers.
Is Protoavis a bird or a mammal?
Though it existed far earlier than Archaeopteryx, its skeletal structure is allegedly 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.
Was Protoavis a bipedal archosaur?
Protoavis is usually depicted as being a bipedal archosaur, similar to several poposaurids and rauisuchids that lived during roughly the same time as Protoavis. In a description published by Sankar Chatterjee, structures were identified as quill knobs, although there has been debate as to whether these are actually quill knobs or not.
Is Protoavis texensis a theropod?
Chatterjee (1991 Chatterjee ( , 1999) identified the putative bird Protoavis texensis from the Post Quarry (Fig. 17E–J), suggesting a surprisingly early radiation for tetanuran, coelurosaurian, and avian theropods.
Is the skull of Protoavis complete?
Chatterjee presents the skull of Protoavis as complete, although only the caudal aspect of the cranium is represented in the available fossils.
