Shenqiornis: Reconstructing a Mesozoic bird skull

O’Connor and Chiappe 2011
traced (Fig. 1) and reconstructed (Fig. 2) the skull of the enantiornithine bird Shenqiornis mengi (Early Cretaceous; Wang et al. 2010; DNHM D2950-2951). This is one of the few enantiornithines with substantial skull material.

O’Connor and Chiappe used freehand techniques
to reconstruct Shenqiornis (Fig. 2). This is almost never a good idea as assumptions and biases tend to flavor freehand reconstructions.

Long time readers know, it is far better to use the DGS method
(Fig. 3) and simply transfer precisely traced shapes to the reconstruction without bias or forethought. It also permits others to see exactly what you saw in a scattered, crushed fossil.

Given this data,
Sheqiornis nests with Pengornis (Fig. 4) in the large reptile tree (LRT, 1703+ taxa) based on skull traits alone.

If you think things here have been a little strange
over the last 3 weeks, you’re right. My large aging computer zapped out. Meanwhile I was able to handle posts using a small MacBook Pro, but was not able to get to my Adobe graphics software for DGS tracing and reconstructing. I was likewise unable to update the LRT. Things are back to normal now (see Fig. 3 above), so we continue!

References
O’Connor JK and Chiappe LM 2011. A revision of enantiornithine (Aves: Ornithothoraces) skull morphology. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 9:1, 135-157, DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2010.526639
Wang X, O’Connor J, Zhao B, Chiappe LM, Gao C and Cheng X 2010. New species of Enantiornithes (Aves: Ornithothoraces) from the Qiaotou Formation in Northern Hebei, China. Acta Geologica Sinica, 84(2):247-256.

wiki/Shenqiornis