Paraves

Paraves is a branch-based clade containing birds (clade Aves) and other closely related dinosaurs. The paravians include the Avialae, such as Archaeopteryx, and the Deinonychosauria, which includes the dromaeosaurids and troodontids.

The name Paraves was coined by Paul Sereno in 1997.Sereno P.C. 1997. The origin and evolution of dinosaurs. Annual Review of Earth & Planetary Sciences 25:435- 489. The clade was defined by Sereno in 1998 as a branch-based clade containing all Maniraptora closer to modern birds than to Oviraptor.Sereno P.C. 1998. A rationale for phylogenetic definitions, with application to the higher level taxonomy of Dinosauria. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie Abhandlungen 210:41-83.

The work of Xu and colleagues provide examples of basal and early paravians with four wings, including members of the Avialae (Pedopenna), Dromaeosauridae (Microraptor), and Troodontidae (Anchiornis). Hu, Dongyu, Lianhi, Hou, Zhang, Lijun, Xu, Xing. 2009. A pre-Archaeopteryx troodontid theropod from China with long feathers on the metatarsus. Nature 461, 640-643. doi:10.1038/nature08322. Xing X. Zhou Z. Wang X. Kuang X. Zhang F. and Du X. 2003. Four-winged dinosaurs from China. Nature, 421: 335–340. Xu X. and Zhang F. 2005. A new maniraptoran dinosaur from China with long feathers on the metatarsus. Naturwissenschaften, 92(4): 173 - 177.

Relationships
The cladogram presented below follows a study by Zhang and colleagues.Zhang F. Zhou Z. Xu X. Wang X. and Sullivan C. 2008. A bizarre Jurassic maniraptoran from China with elongate ribbon-like feathers. Nature, 455: 1105-1108. doi:10.1038/nature07447Sereno P.C. McAllister S. and Brusatte S.L. 2005. TaxonSearch: a relational database for suprageneric taxa and phylogenetic definitions. PhyloInformatics, 8: 1-21. 

Related pages
 Origin of birds

References

Category:Coelurosaurs
Category:Birds
Category:Fossils