PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Li, Zhiheng
AU  - Wang, Wei
AU  - Hu, Han
AU  - Wang, Min
AU  - Yi, Hongyu
AU  - Lu, Jing
TI  - Is <em>Oculudentavis</em> a bird or even archosaur?
AID  - 10.1101/2020.03.16.993949
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.03.16.993949
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/06/08/2020.03.16.993949.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/06/08/2020.03.16.993949.full
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 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.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.