Abstract:

The Confuciusornithiformes is a basal clade of Early Cretaceous birds that includes the oldest and most basal birds with a toothless beak and an abbreviated bony tail. Over the last two decades, thousands of specimens have been collected, more than for any other group of Mesozoic birds or non-avian dinosaurs. Ten species separated into four genera have been erected with limited taxonomic phylogenetic scrutiny. Here, we perform a comparative study of these ten species, and demonstrate that most of these taxa were originally diagnosed by characters that prove to be either preservational artifacts, intraspecific variations, subject to ontogenetic variation, or widely distributed among the Confuciusornithiformes or a more phylogenetically inclusive group. Our results suggest that ‘Confuciusornis suniae’, ‘C. feducciai’, ‘Jinzhouornis yixianensis’, ‘J. zhangjiyingia’, and ‘C. jianchangensis’ are all junior synonyms of C. sanctus. ‘C. chuonzhous’ lacks autapomorphies of C. sanctus and is referred to Confuciusornithiformes incertae sedis. Our taxonomic reappraisal of published materials indicates that the Confuciusornithiformes consists of one family, three genera, and four species: C. sanctus, C. dui, Changchengornis hengdaoziensis, and Eoconfuciusornis zhengi, for which we provide revised diagnoses.

Key words: Cretaceous, Aves, Confuciusornithiformes, Confuciusornis, taxonomy, phylogeny

摘要：

孔子鸟目是早白垩世鸟类中具有角质喙和尾综骨的最原始的鸟类类群之一。在过去近20年的研究历史中,千余件孔子鸟类标本被发现,其数目多过其他中生代鸟类和非鸟类恐龙。目前,共计4个属,10个种被先后归入到孔子鸟目中,然而这些属种的分类位置是否有效尚不清楚。通过对已发表的所有孔子鸟类属种进行详细的对比研究,证实了其中多数属种的鉴定特征有误,这些特征或受保存的影响,或代表了种内和个体发育的变化,亦或广泛分布在孔子鸟类或基干鸟类中,而并不能成为这些属种建属或建种的依据。认为此前命名的孙氏孔子鸟、费氏孔子鸟、义县锦州鸟、张吉营锦州鸟和建昌孔子鸟均属于圣贤孔子鸟的同物异名;而川州孔子鸟未保存确切的鉴定特征而难以和其他孔子鸟类相区别,暂将其归入孔子鸟科未定种。至此,对所有已报道的孔子鸟目的分类厘定认为,目前孔子鸟目共包括1科、3属、4种,分别是圣贤孔子鸟、杜氏孔子鸟、横道子长城鸟和郑氏始孔子鸟,并对这些属种各自的鉴定特征进行了修正。

关键词: 白垩纪, 鸟类, 孔子鸟目, 孔子鸟属, 分类, 系统发育