Boluochia

Chaoyang (Liaoning), China ( Jiufotang Formation)

Boluochia is a genus of primitive birds whose fossils were found in sedimentary rocks of the Jiufotang - formation near Chaoyang City in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Boluochia zhengi lived in the Lower Cretaceous ( Aptian - lower Albian upper ) and was a member of the group Enantiornithes, which became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period.

Etymology

The genus name is derived from the locality, the village Boluochi波罗 赤in Chaoyang.

Description

Boluochia zhengi was first described by Zhonghe Zhou in 1995. The only kind and type species is an incomplete skeleton, which is stored under the number IVPP V9770 in Beijing at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Boluochia is characterized by an upper jaw, which ended in a toothless Zwischenkieferbein whose curved downward peak reminiscent of the beak of some birds of prey. That the metatarsal bones ( metatarsals ) of digits II to IV are of equal length and the joint roles ( Trochleen ), will underpin the toes, on the same level, points out, that could encompass the bird branches well.

Further features of the hind leg are characteristic of the plant species: The joint part of the second metatarsal bone is wider than that of the rays III and IV; at the outer end of the tibia of the outer joint body is almost as wide as the inner, both are separated only by a narrow groove and the front edge of the inner joint body is seen from the outside flat.

System

Some paleontologists consider Boluochia zhengi as a related type of Cathayornis (also called Sinornis ) and Eocathayornis - but this is not generally accepted as the cladistic position is still very uncertain. Michel Mortimer, author of " Theropod Database " about Boluochia looks quite settled near Longipteryx. Zhonghe Zhou and Fucheng Zhang Boluochia have their own family ( Boluochidae ) and order ( Boluochiformes ) within the Enantiornithes to.