Kuszholia (meaning "Milky Way bird" after the Kazakh term for the Milky Way, құс жолы qus jolı) is the name given to a genus of primitive birds or bird-like dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous. They were possibly coelurosaurs close to the ancestry of birds, although most scientists have considered it an avialan (either a primitive ornithuran or enantiornithine). Fossils were found in the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum desert of Uzbekistan.
Kuszholia Temporal range: Turonian
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Clade: | Avialae |
Clade: | †Enantiornithes |
Family: | †Kuszholiidae Nesov, 1992 |
Genus: | †Kuszholia Nesov, 1992 |
Species: | †K. mengi
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Binomial name | |
†Kuszholia mengi Nesov, 1992
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The genus contains a single species, K. mengi; a separate family has been erected for it (Kuszholiidae). It is known only from a series of small vertebrae, with prominent hollow chambers (pneumaticity).[1]
References
edit- ^ Nesov, L.A. (1992). "Record of the Localities of Mesozoic and Paleogene with Avian Remains in the USSR, and the description of New Findings." Russian Journal of Ornithology, 1: 7-50. [Article in Russian]
External links
edit- George Olshevsky on Kuszholia, from the Dinosaur Mailing List