Confuciusornithiformes
| Confuciusornithiformes Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 131–120 Ma |
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| Fossil specimen of Confuciusornis sanctus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Pygostylia |
| Clade: |
†Confuciusornithiformes Hou et al., 1995 |
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Confuciusornithiformes is a group of beaked, long-winged avialans from the early Cretaceous Period of China. This group was the first to develop avian beaks. It is thought that these avialans evolved to have a period of fast yolk deposition before laying eggs.
Confuciusornithiformes were generally very small, with large, robust forelimbs supporting long and narrow wing feathers. Their legs were relatively short compared to their forelimbs. All known species lacked teeth, and had small, pointed beaks covering the tips of their jaws. About half of all the confuciusornithid specimens, including representatives of all species, that have preserved feathers possess a pair of distinctive ribbon-like tail feathers, and possessed both shafted and non-shafted (downy) feathers.
The family Confuciusornithidae was first named by Hou et al. in 1995 to contain the type genus, Confuciusornis, and assigned to the order Confuciusornithiformes. The Confuciusornithidae was given a phylogenetic definition by Chiappe, in 1999, who defined it as a node-based clade to include only Changchengornis and Confuciusornis.Jinzhouornis was added to the Confuciusornithidae by Hou, Zhou, and Zhang in 2002, though it is generally considered a synonym of Confuciusornis today. In 2008, Zhang, Zhou and Benton assigned the newly described genus Eoconfuciusornis to the family. However, several analyses since then have found it to be a non-confuciusornithid confuciusornithiform.
Most confuciusornithids are known from the upper Jehol group, the Yixian Formation and Jiufotang Formation, dating from 125 to 120 million years ago. E. zhengi, however, predated the other confuciusornithids by 6 million years, dating to 131 Ma ago.
Cladogram following the results of a phylogenetic study by Jinghai O'Connor and colleagues in 2016:
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