Kuszholia

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.

Kuszholia Temporal range: Coniacian 90–86 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Clade:	Avialae
Clade:	†Enantiornithes
Family:	†Kuszholiidae Nesov, 1992
Genus:	†Kuszholia Nesov, 1992
Species:	†K. mengi
Binomial name
†Kuszholia mengi Nesov, 1992

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]