Pronunciation: see-NAG-na-thuh-day
Author: Raymond McKee Sternberg
Year: 1940
Meaning: Recent jaws (see etymology)
Locomotion: Bipedal (2 legs)
Synonyms: Elmisauridae (Osmolska, 1981)
Definition
The most inclusive clade containing Chirostenotes pergracilis but not Oviraptor philoceratops.
About
Caenagnathidae - meaning "recent jaws" - is a family within Oviraptorosauria that was coined by Raymond Mckee Sternberg in 1940 and anchored by
Caenagnathus - a "flightless bird" since proven to be Chirostenotes. And then it wasn't again.
The flightless caenagnathids are sisters of the oviraptorids and share a similar general body plan; long arms and legs, fused ankles, long necks, short tails, and fancy head crests, though they are more lightly-built with longer and more shallow jaws riddled with air-filled hollows and a series of ridges and toothlike processes.
Etymology
Caenagnathidae is derived from the Greek "kaine" (recent, new) and "gnathos" (jaws), and the Latin "idae" (family).
Relationships
References
• Sternberg RM (1940) "A toothless bird from the Cretaceous of Alberta". Journal of Paleontology, 14(1): 81-85.
• Senter P and Parrish JM (2005) "Functional analysis of the hands of the theropod dinosaur Chirostenotes pergracilis: evidence for an unusual paleoecological role". PaleoBios, 25: 9–19.
• Funston G (2020) "Caenagnathids of the Dinosaur Park Formation (Campanian) of Alberta, Canada: anatomy, osteohistology, taxonomy, and evolution". Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology, 8: 105-153. DOI: 10.18435/vamp29362.
