Kuszholia (meaning "Milky Way bird" after the Kazakh term for the Milky Way, құс жолы qus jolı) is the name given to a genus of primitive birds or bird-like dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous.
History
Fossils were found in the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum desert of Bukhara Province, in Uzbekistan; these have been described as vertebrae from a "chicken-sized" animal.[1] These fossils were described by Russian paleontologist Lev Alexandrovich Nesov in 1992.[2]
The fossils date to the Coniacian age or stage of the Late Cretaceous, in the geologic timescale, between 89.8 ± 1 Ma and 86.3 ± 0.7 Ma (million years ago). The holotype specimen is catalogued as PO 4602 (originally PO 3486).[1]
Classification
Kuszholia were possibly coelurosaurs close to the ancestry of birds, although most scientists have considered the fossils as belonging to an avialan (either a primitive ornithuran or enantiornithine).
The genus contains a single species, K. mengi; a separate family has been erected for it (Kuszholiidae). It is known only from a series of small vertebrae, with prominent hollow chambers (pneumaticity).[2]
Later, Kuszholia was placed in the clade Patagopterygiformes.[2]
References
- ^ a b Benton, Michael J.; Shishkin, Mikhail A.; Unwin, David M.; Kurochkin, Evgenii N. (2003-12-04). The Age of Dinosaurs in Russia and Mongolia. Cambridge University Press. p. 552. ISBN 978-0-521-54582-2. Retrieved 2025-02-05.
- ^ a b c Nesov, L.A. (1992). "Record of the Localities of Mesozoic and Paleogene with Avian Remains in the USSR, and the description of New Findings." Russian Journal of Ornithology, 1: 7-50. [Article in Russian]
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