Jian, new microraptorine from Lower Cretaceous of Gansu Province, China (free pdf)

[Ben Creisler]

Ben Creisler

bcre...@gmail.com

A new paper not yet mentioned:

Free pdf:

Jian changmaensis gen. et sp. nov.


Ling-Qi Zhou, Matthew C. Lamanna, Ashley W. Poust, Da-Qing Li, Hai-Lu You & Jingmai K. O’Connor (2026)
First non-avian theropod (Dromaeosauridae, Microraptorinae) from the bird-bearing Lower Cretaceous Xiagou Formation of the Changma Basin, Gansu Province, Northwestern China
Annals of Carnegie Museum 92(2): 89–110
https://carnegiemnh.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Jian-changmaensis-Annals-of-Carnegie-Museum.pdf


Lacustrine sediments of the Lower Cretaceous (lower Aptian) Xiagou Formation exposed near the village of Changma in the Changma Basin of northwestern Gansu Province, China have yielded more than 100 avian partial skeletons, many of which also preserve remnants of soft tissues such as feathers and skin. Collectively, these fossils characterize a rich avifauna dominated by the crownward ornithuromorph Gansus yumenensis Hou and Liu, 1984. Despite this wealth of Early Cretaceous bird material, no skeletal remains of other dinosaurs have been described from Changma to date. Here we report the first non-avian dinosaur body fossil from the Xiagou Formation of the Changma Basin. Consisting of an articulated left pectoral girdle and forelimb lacking the carpus and manus, the specimen pertains to a new dromaeosaurid theropod taxon, Jian changmaensis, gen. et sp. nov. Phylogenetic analysis recovers Jian within Microraptorinae, expanding the definitive fossil record of this clade to include northwestern China. The new Changma microraptorine constitutes an additional similarity between the theropod faunas of the Xiagou Formation of the Changma Basin and penecontemporaneous strata of the Jehol Group of northeastern China. In particular, the Changma theropod assemblage closely resembles that of the Sihedang locality of the Jehol Group in that both include representatives of Microraptorinae and are overwhelmingly dominated by single ornithuromorph taxa that phylogenetic analyses have repeatedly resolved as close relatives. This raises the possibility that the two sites were deposited under comparable paleoenvironmental settings that are otherwise poorly represented at known Jehol localities.

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News:

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1130828

https://www.sci.news/paleontology/jian-changmaensis-14819.html

https://www.livescience.com/animals/dinosaurs/new-velociraptor-cousin-was-a-4-winged-dragon-that-hunted-prey-from-the-trees-of-ancient-china-fossil-find-hints

https://novataxa.blogspot.com/2026/06

[Tim Williams]

The news articles seem to be focused on aspects of _Jian_'s ecology that are not mentioned at all in the description: climbing and gliding behavior by it and other "microraptors".  Some of these news articles even compare them to flying squirrels in their abilities to climb and glide from tree to tree.

After reading Giannini and Cannell's manuscript on the evolution of aerial mammals (recently posted to the list - thanks Ben!), I'm even more skeptical than ever that microraptors were capable of gliding.  According to Giannini and Cannell, the evolutionary path to gliding passes through a continuum of stages: terrestrial (ancestral) --> scansorial --> arboreal --> gliding.  Specialized arboreality is a prerequisite to gliding.  

The 'gliding microraptor'  hypothesis implies that they bypassed the arboreal stage, and went straight from terrestrial/scansorial to gliding.  For some reason microraptors get special consideration, unlike the ancestors of gliding mammals such as flying squirrels and colugos, which had to clear this 'arboreal barrier' on the way to becoming specialized for gliding.

Personally, I thought the 'gliding microraptor' hypothesis was dead.  With abundant evidence that _Microraptor_ was capable of powered flight, and little if any evidence that it was arboreal (or even scansorial), what was the point?  Yet, this Feduccia-esque notion of tree-dwelling, gliding microraptors refuses to die.

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[Mickey Mortimer]

Hey look, "Jian" gives a lot of Google results about a sword first. And Kank is a Hindi movie and family of proteins. Can we please stop giving dinosaurs these STUPID short names that are already words and give them unique words for names that won't get screwed by Search Engine Optimization? E.g. Jianraptor... Kankovenator... it's EASY! WHY won't people do this?! "Yeah, my next dinosaur is going to be named The..."

Mickey Mortimer

[Tim Williams]

Mickey Mortimer <therizino...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey look, "Jian" gives a lot of Google results about a sword first. And Kank is a Hindi movie and family of proteins. Can we please stop giving dinosaurs these STUPID short names that are

> already words and give them unique words for names that won't get screwed by Search Engine Optimization? E.g. Jianraptor... Kankovenator... it's EASY! WHY won't people do this?! "

To be fair, the names are binomial (_Jian changmaensis_, _Kank_ australis_, etc).

At least genus names like _Jian_, _Kank_, _Beg_, _Hexing_ etc are sourced from local languages or dialects.  I much prefer them to clunky, poorly combined, multisyllabic Greek/Latin names like _Notatesseraeraptor_, _Aberratiodontus_, or _Brevirostruavis_.

Short genus names that are already words are not unique to dinosaurs, and are as old as zoological nomenclature.  Linnaeus himself named a genus of amoeba _Chaos_.  There's an arachnid genus _Oops_, a scarab genus _Enema_, and a bee genus _Samba_.  There's also a fossil mammal named _Crash_.  Using the binomen doesn't help with this last one, given the full name is _Crash bandicoot_.

> "Yeah, my next dinosaur is going to be named The..."

I can easily imagine this happening in modern entomology.

[Mickey Mortimer]

"To be fair, the names are binomial (_Jian changmaensis_, _Kank_ australis_, etc)."

Yeah, but unless it's Tyrannosaurus rex or Mei long (the origin of the problem in Mesozoic dinosaurs), most people will not include the species name.

"At least genus names like _Jian_, _Kank_, _Beg_, _Hexing_ etc are sourced from local languages or dialects.  I much prefer them to clunky, poorly combined, multisyllabic Greek/Latin names like _Notatesseraeraptor_, _Aberratiodontus_, or _Brevirostruavis_."

Nope. The latter are better in this case because they are unique words. I'm all for using your local language, but slap on a suffix to make it a unique word. How's this suggestion- you could even use the Mongolian, Chinese, etc. word for "lizard", "bird" or whatever to be your suffix? Extra authentic and still a new word!

"Short genus names that are already words are not unique to dinosaurs, and are as old as zoological nomenclature.  Linnaeus himself named a genus of amoeba _Chaos_.  There's an arachnid genus _Oops_, a scarab genus _Enema_, and a bee genus _Samba_.  There's also a fossil mammal named _Crash_.  Using the binomen doesn't help with this last one, given the full name is _Crash bandicoot_"

That people have done things badly before does not mean we can't improve now.

Mickey Mortimer

[Ethan Schoales]

Surely it’s possible to have local-language genus names that are still long enough to be searchable on their own.

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[Jaime Headden]

"Avenger belloinfinitum" :)

PS: pls don't

Cheers,

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/DinosaurMailingGroup/9add2c51-1fc6-4229-a135-52ce70e88a48n%40googlegroups.com.

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Jaime A. Headden

The Bite Stuff: http://qilong.wordpress.com/

"Innocent, unbiased observation is a myth" - P. B. Medawar (1969)

[Tim Williams]

Ethan Schoales <ethan.s...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Surely it’s possible to have local-language genus names that are still long enough to be searchable on their own.

There is a long tradition of short local-language names in zoological nomenclature.  I don't see why this should change, simply because certain names make Google searches harder.

_Mops_, a genus of mastiff bats, was named in 1842 after the Malayan word for bat.  The African bee genus _Samba_, named in 1908, seems to refer to the dance.  

There are plenty of short, Greek/Latin-derived genus names, such as _Io_ and _Zeus_.  _Oops_ was named in 1846, and is of Greek origin (oon + ops), like its senior synonym _Oonops_.  There's also the fish genus _Boops_ (bos + ops).  

So why shouldn't we create names from local languages that are likewise short?  As I said before, I prefer these to the awkward and badly constructed Greek/Latin names we sometimes get (I'm looking at you, _Notatesseraeraptor_).

There are also certain short genus names that are intended solely to be humorous.  Modern entomology has given us _Aha_ and _This_, among others.  

[Maxwell Miles Candlen]

I think the issue has less to do with length and more to do with the wholesale use of a pre-existing word (or, in this case, name) without any modification. For example, the sauropodomorph species Issi saaneq is simply the Greenlandic words for “cold” and “bone”, presented in that order. Why couldn’t they have been combined into a single, new word for the generic name, Issisaaneq? This avoids the Google-ability problem and opens up the specific epithet for more creativity, inclusion, or what have you.

Maxwell Miles Candlen

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[Tim Williams]

Maxwell Miles Candlen <maxwellmi...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I think the issue has less to do with length and more to do with the wholesale use of a pre-existing word (or, in this case, name) without any modification. For example, the sauropodomorph

>  species Issi saaneq is simply the Greenlandic words for “cold” and “bone”, presented in that order. Why couldn’t they have been combined into a single, new word for the generic name,

> Issisaaneq? This avoids the Google-ability problem and opens up the specific epithet for more creativity, inclusion, or what have you.

Here I absolutely agree.  This could have applied to binomina like _Mei long_,  _Yi qi_, _Beg tse_, _Shri devi_, etc etc.  

[Mickey Mortimer]

"There are also certain short genus names that are intended solely to be humorous.  Modern entomology has given us _Aha_ and _This_, among others."

In addition to what I've already said, these kinds of names just create more work for anybody publishing on those taxa. Imagine you're writing some paper on This, and every time you do a grammar check, you have to deal with Word flagging This as wrongly capitalized, but if you make This an exception, every time you get that word wrong in anything else you write, Word will miss it. But talk about destroying any search ability- I wanted to see what kind of insect This is, but I have no clue how to find it on Google. 'This' 'insect' of course finds nothing, 'This' 'genus' 'insect' finds nothing. Asking Google 'What insect has the genus name "This"?' finds nothing. Zoobank finds nothing. The author, whoever they are because I can't find a record of their taxon, just made their taxon impossible to research. All to have a laugh. Ha....... Ever so commendable and clever. *slow clap*

Mickey Mortimer

[Tim Williams]

Mickey Mortimer <therizino...@gmail.com> wrote:

 > The author, whoever they are because I can't find a record of their taxon, just made their taxon impossible to research. All to have a laugh. Ha....... Ever so commendable and clever. *slow clap*

_This_ is a genus of kelp fly, found on coastal seaweed.  Apparently 'this' (θίς) means 'seashore' in ancient Greek.

McAlpine DK (1991). Review of the Australian kelp flies Diptera: Coelopidae. Systematic Entomology. 16: 67–70.

The story goes that the author had a poster on his office door that said "Look at This!" along with a picture of the new fly.

[Mickey Mortimer]

" _This_ is a genus of kelp fly, found on coastal seaweed.  Apparently 'this' (θίς) means 'seashore' in ancient Greek.

McAlpine DK (1991). Review of the Australian kelp flies Diptera: Coelopidae. Systematic Entomology. 16: 67–70.

The story goes that the author had a poster on his office door that said "Look at This!" along with a picture of the new fly."

And did you find that via a source that wasn't some article on 'hilarious' joke scientific names?  Imagine somebody trying to search e.g. the Australian ecological literature for citations of This. The paper is actually the fifth result when I searched ' "This" Australia Diptera ecology shore ', but you would never know it includes the genus because the instances of "this" in the paper that are highlighted by Google in the search results are just the word, not the genus. Incidentally, the species is This canus, but he never explains the species etymology.

Mickey Mortimer

[Andreas Johansson]

Canus means white, grey, or hoary in Latin. 

—
Andreas Johansson

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