Xiaotingia is a genus of avialan theropoddinosaur from early Late Jurassicdeposits of western Liaoning, China, containing a single species, Xiaotingia zhengi.
Discovery[]
Size of Xiaotingia
Xiaotingia is known from the holotypeSTM 27-2, an articulated and almost complete skeleton including the skull. It was probably collected in the Linglongta area, Jianchang, from the Tiaojishan Formation.
Etymology[]
Xiaotingia was first named by Xu Xing,You Hailu, Du Kai and Han Fenglu in2011 and the type species is Xiaotingia zhengi. The generic name and specific name together honour Zheng Xiaoting.
Description[]
Xiaotingia was morphologically similar to Archaeopteryx and was the size of a hen. It was about 60 cm long and weighed an estimated 0.82 kg. It looked like a small feathered dinosaur that lived in an arboreal environment. Like Archaeopteryx it had long forelimbs. Its femur was longer than its humerus, 84 mm as against 71 mm, which might indicate that it stood on its hind limbs and could use its forelimbs for flapping.
Xiaotingia had feathers on its head, body, forelimbs and hind limbs. The feathers on the femur were quite long, measuring 55 mm. It also had long pennaceous feathers on its tibia and metatarsus. If Xiaotingia could fly short distances it might also have used its hind limbs as wings.
Xiaotingia had a dentary tooth count probably less than 10 and teeth similar in morphology to those of basal avians.
Classification[]
The initial analysis by Xu et al. showed that Xiaotingia formed a clade withArchaeopteryx, Dromaeosauridae and Troodontidae to the exclusion of other groups traditionally seen as birds. Xu et al therefore (re)defined the concepts of Deinonychosauria and Avialae to the extent that Archaeopteryx and Xiaotingiabelonged to the Deinonychosauria in the clade Archaeopterygidae. This led to popular reports that "Archaeopteryx is no longer a bird", although Xu et al noted that there are several competing definitions of the clade Aves currently in use, pointing out that their definitions are compatible with a traditional Aveswith Archaeopteryx as a specifier. This was challenged by an analysis using different methods published several months later however, in whichArchaeopteryx was again recovered as an avialan, while Xiaotingia remained closely allied to Anchiornis within the Troodontidae. In 2012, an expanded and revised version of the initial analysis also found Archaeopteryx to be avialan and Anchiornis to be troodontid, but recovered Xiaotingia as the most primitive member of the cladeDromaeosauridae rather than a close relative of Anchiornis within Troodontidae.
Life restoration
Skeletal restoration
Relationships found by the revised analysis of Senter et al., 2012:
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Below is a cladogram published in 2013 by Godefroit et al.[5]
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Appearance in other media[]
Jurassic Park[]
- Xiaotingia is mentioned in the database of Jeholopterus in Jurassic World Evolution 2.
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Read more Xiaotingia on Jurassic Park Wiki |