Songlingornithidae

Songlingornithidae is a family of early ornithuromorph birds from the early Cretaceous Period of China. All known specimens come from the Jiufotang Formation, dating to the early Aptian age, 120 million years ago.

The family Songlingornithidae was first named by Hou in 1997 to contain the type genus, Songlingornis. Clarke et al. (2006) was first to find a close relationship between Songlingornis and the "yanornithids".

The name was originally coined to reflect a close relationship between the two supposedly similar (but poorly preserved) bird fossils, of the genera Songlingornis and Chaoyangia. However, subsequent studies found that Chaoyangia was probably not closely related to Songlingornis. Instead, songlingornis was found to be closely related to another group which had been given the name Yanornithidae--the name Songlingornithidae, having been named first, took precedence. Several more recent studies have found that the hongshanornithids are probably also a member of this group. At least one study has found the late Cretaceous Mongolian bird Hollanda to be a member of this group.

Taxonomy

 * †Songlingornithidae Hou 1997
 * †Piscivoravis lii Zhou et al. 2013
 * †Songlingornis linghensis Hou 1997 (Early Cretaceous)
 * †Yixianornis grabaui Zhou & Zhang 2001 (Early Cretaceous)
 * †Yanornis Zhou & Zhang 2001 [Archaeoraptor Sloan 1999 (nomen nudum) ; Archaeovolans Czerkas & Xu 2002 ; Aberratiodontus Gong, Hou & Wang 2004 ] (Early Cretaceous)
 * †Y. martini Zhou & Zhang 2001 [Archaeoraptor liaoningensis Sloan 1999 (nomen nudum) ; Archaeovolans repatriatus Czerkas & Xu 2002 ; Aberratiodontus wui Gong, Hou & Wang 2004 ]
 * †Y. guozhangi Wang et al. 2013
 * †Y. chaoyangensis