- Pterosaur (eg. Dsungaripteroidea) eg. Nemicolopterus -->-->
- Enantiornithes landbird subgroup -->
- Modern "Galliformes"(eg. Chicken, Turkey, Pheasant, Quail) and Tinamiformes (Tinamou)
Fowl
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/Sonnerathuhn.jpg/240px-Sonnerathuhn.jpg
Tinamou
http://leesbirdblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/red-winged-tinamou-rhynchotus-rufescens-by-c2a9wiki.jpg
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/6/1983.full
Nemicolopterus also demonstrates clear adaptations of the toes and claws for grasping tree branches. Most pterosaurs are known from marine sediments, meaning that they probably caught fish in the ocean and landed on the adjacent beaches or cliffs. Nemicolopterus, on the other hand, is one of just a few known pterosaurs that lived in the continental interior, and probably hunted insects and roosted in the forest canopy.
http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?pid=S0002-70142006000100019&script=sci_arttext
ReplyDeleteThe coracoid also resembles galliforms in having a reduced procoracoidal process (Alvarenga, 1995), a condition also present in Tinamiformes