Protobird is an informal term that has been used by some paleontologist s when discussing animals that, while technically classified as non avian dinosaur s, possess many features normally associated with bird s. All protobirds are extinct . Zhou and Farlow 2001 , for example, used the term protobird for primitive members of the clade Avialae . In this sense, protobirds would include animals like Confuciusornis , Sapeornis , and the Enantiornithes . These animals were small, flying, feathered, and closely related to birds. The authors restricted the term bird to refer only to Aves , which they used to mean only modern crown group birds. ref Zhou, Z. and Farlow, J.O. 2001 . Flight Capability and habits of Confuciusornis. Pp. 237 245 in New Perspectives on the Origin and Early Evolution of Birds . Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, New Haven, USA. ref Gregory S. Paul used the term protobird in a wider sense in 1988, to refer to the extremely bird like non avian dinosaurs Maniraptora , including Oviraptorosauria oviraptorosaurs , Troodontidae troodontids , and Dromaeosauridae dromaeosaurids . ref name paul1988 Paul, Gregory S. 1988 . Predatory Dinosaurs of the World. New York Simon and Schuster. 464 pp. ref Paul speculated that these forms were so bird like they probably had feather s, an idea later proven by fossil evidence. See also Feathered dinosaurs References reflist Category Dinosaurs Category Extinct birds animal stub ... more details
Italic title Taxobox name Longisquama image Longisquama BW.jpg image width 200px image caption One interpretation of Longisquama insignis fossil range Middle Triassic Late Triassic regnum Animal ia phylum Chordate Chordata classis Reptile Sauropsida subclassis Diapsida unranked ordo Avicephala ? familia Longisquamidae familia authority Sharov, 1970 genus Longisquama genus authority Sharov, 1970 subdivision ranks Species subdivision L. insignis small Sharov, 1970 Type zoology type small Longisquama insignis is an extinct lizard like reptile known only from one poorly preserved and incomplete fossil. It lived during the middle or late Triassic Period , 230 225 million years ago, in what is now Kyrgyzstan . It is known from a type fossil specimen slab and counterslab PIN 2548 4 and PIN 2584 5 , and five referred specimens of possible integumentary appendages PIN 2584 7 through 9 . All specimens are in the collection of the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow . Longisquama means long scales the specific name zoology specific name insignis refers to its small size. The Longisquama fossil is notable for a number of long structures that appear to grow from its skin. These structures have been interpreted differently by different researchers, and are at the center of a large and heavily publicized debate related to that of the origin of bird s. To some, Longisquama is the gliding, cold blooded, protobird predicted by Gerhard Heilmann s hypothetical Proavis in 1927, and it proves that birds are not dinosaurs. To others, it is an ambiguous diapsid preserved on a group of fern fronds and has no bearing on the origin of birds. The long scales Image Longisquama insignis skeleton&silhouette small.jpg thumb left Skeletal reconstructions of Longisquama . The Longisquama fossil appears to have feather shaped structures attached to its body. Investigators have interpreted these structures in a variety of different ways. Haubold and Buffetaut 1987 be ... more details
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