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Is Oculudentavis a bird or even archosaur?

Zhiheng Li, Wei Wang, Han Hu, Min Wang, Hongyu Yi, View ORCID ProfileJing Lu
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.16.993949
Zhiheng Li
1Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Wei Wang
2Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Han Hu
3University of New England, Armidale, Australia
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Min Wang
1Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Hongyu Yi
1Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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Jing Lu
1Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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  • ORCID record for Jing Lu
  • For correspondence: lujing@ivpp.ac.cn
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Abstract

Recent finding of a fossil – Oculudentavis khaungraae Xing et al. 2020, entombed in a Late Cretaceous amber – was claimed to represent a humming bird-sized dinosaur1. Regardless of the intriguing evolutionary hypotheses about the bauplan of Mesozoic dinosaurs (including birds) posited therein, this enigmatic animal demonstrates various morphologies resembling lizards. If Oculudentavis was a bird, it challenges several fundamental morphological differences between Lepidosauria and Archosauria. Here we reanalyze the original computed tomography scan data of Oculudentavis. Morphological evidences demonstrated here highly contradict the avian or even archosaurian phylogenetic placement of Oculudentavis. In contrast, our analysis revealed multiple synapomorphies of the Squamata in this taxon, including pleurodont marginal teeth and an open infratemporal fenestra, which suggests a squamate rather than avian or dinosaurian affinity of Oculudentavis (Figs. 1 and 2).

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Posted March 19, 2020.
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Is Oculudentavis a bird or even archosaur?
Zhiheng Li, Wei Wang, Han Hu, Min Wang, Hongyu Yi, Jing Lu
bioRxiv 2020.03.16.993949; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.16.993949
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Is Oculudentavis a bird or even archosaur?
Zhiheng Li, Wei Wang, Han Hu, Min Wang, Hongyu Yi, Jing Lu
bioRxiv 2020.03.16.993949; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.16.993949

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