A New Genus and Species of Sapeornithidae from Lower Cretaceous in Western Liaoning, China

Sapeornithidae is a basal pygostylian family of Early Cretaceous primitive birds,in which only one genus and species,Sapeornis chaoyangensis,was reported before.This paper deals with a new genus and species of this family,Didactylornisjii gen.et sp.nov.,which was unearthed from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in western Liaoning.According to our phylogenetic analyses,both Didactylornis gen.nov.and Sapeornis form a sister group,which is basal to the clade formed by Confuciusornis and all the more derived birds,and more closely related to the short-tailed pygostylian birds than to the long-tailed avialian birds.The early history of pygostylian birds is poorly documented except for the studies of Confuciusornis and Sapeornis.The discovery of Didactylornis jii gen.et sp.nov. adds the new material for the study on the early evolution of birds.