RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Is <em>Oculudentavis</em> a bird or even archosaur?
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.03.16.993949
DO 10.1101/2020.03.16.993949
A1 Li, Zhiheng
A1 Wang, Wei
A1 Hu, Han
A1 Wang, Min
A1 Yi, Hongyu
A1 Lu, Jing
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/18/2020.03.16.993949.abstract
AB 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 dinosaur [1]. Regardless the intriguing evolutional hypotheses about the bauplan of Mesozoic dinosaurs (including birds) posited therein, this enigmatic animal, however, demonstrates various lizard-like morphologies, which challenge the fundamental morphological gap between Lepidosauria and Archosauria. Here we reanalyze the original computed tomography scan data of Oculudentavis. A suit of squamate synapomorphies, including pleurodont marginal teeth and an open lower temporal fenestra, overwhelmingly support its squamate affinity, and that the avian or dinosaurian assignment of Oculudentavis is conclusively rejected.