Birds evolved from certain feathered theropod dinosaurs, and there is no real dividing line between birds and non-avian dinosaurs except that some of the former survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event while the latter did not. For the purposes of this article, a 'bird' is considered to be any member of the clade Avialae. Some dinosaur groups which may or may not be true birds are listed below under protobirds. This page contains a listing of prehistoric bird taxa only known from completely fossilized specimens. These extinctions took place before the Late Quaternary and thus took place in the absence of significant human interference. While the earliest hominids had been eating birds and especially their eggs, human population and technology was simply insufficient to seriously affect healthy bird populations until the Upper Paleolithic Revolution. Rather, reasons for the extinctions listed here are stochastic abiotic events such as bolide impacts, climate changes due to orbital shifts, mass volcanic eruptions etc. Alternatively, species may have gone extinct due to evolutionary displacement by successor or competitor taxa – it is notable that an extremely large number of seabirds have gone extinct during the mid-Tertiary; this seems at least partly due to competition by the contemporary radiation of marine mammals. The relationships of these taxa are often hard to determine, as many are known only from very fragmentary remains and due to the complete fossilization precluding analysis of information from DNA, RNA or protein sequencing. The taxa listed in this article should be classified with the Wikipedia conservation status category "Fossil". Before the late 19th century, when minerals were still considered one of the kingdoms of binomial nomenclature, fossils were often treated according to a parallel taxonomy. Rather than assigning them to animal or plant genera, they were treated as mineral genera and given binomial names typically using Osteornis ("bone-bird") or Ornitholithus ("bird fossil") as "genus". The latter name, however, is still in use for an oogenus of fossil bird eggs. Also, other animals (in particular pterosaurs) were placed in these "genera". In sources pre-dating the Linnean system, the above terms are also seen in the more extensive descriptions used to name taxa back then.
Taxonomic list of fossil prehistoric birds Higher-level taxa are presented in likely or suspected phylogenetic order. Genus-level taxa and lower are sorted chronologically, in ascending order (i.e., older taxa first). The higher-level groups of non-Neornithes are arranged based on the phylogeny proposed by Luis Chiappe, updated and expanded to incorporate recent research. The categories are inclusive in ascending order. Taxonomic assignments, especially in the pygostylian to early neornithine genera, are still very provisional and subject to quite frequent change.
Basal Avialae (extinct) The most primitive "birds", usually still possessing a long bony tail with generally unfused vertebrae. Not all of these may be on the line of bird ancestors; whether they are not closer to other theropods groups than to the Avialae remains to be thoroughly tested (see Xiaotingia).
†Anchiornis huxleyi Xu et al. 2009 †Aurornis xui Godefroit et al. 2013 †Balaur bondoc Csiki et al. 2010 †Jixiangornis orientalis Ji et al. 2002 †Xiaotingia zhengi Xu et al. 2011 †Yandangornithiformes Cai & Zhao 1999 †Yandangornithidae Cai & Zhao 1999 †Yandangornis longicaudatus Cai & Zhao 1999 (Late Cretaceous) †Archaeopterygiformes Fürbringer 1888 †Archaeopterygidae Huxley 1871 [Archaeornithidae Petronievics 1925; Archaeopteridae Shufeldt 1903; Archornithidae Carus 1875]a †Wellnhoferia grandis Elzanowski 2001 (Late Jurassic) – possible synonym of Archaeopteryx †Archaeopteryx Meyer 1861 [Archaeornis Peteronievics 1917; Griphornis Woodward 1862; Griphosaurus Wagner 1861 (nomen rejectum)] (Late Jurassic) †Jeholornithiformes Zhou & Zhang 2006 †Jeholornithidae Zhou & Zhang 2006 †Dalianraptor cuhe Gao & Liu 2005 †Jeholornis Zhou & Zhang 2002b [Shenzhouraptor Ji et al. 2002] (Early Cretaceous)
Basal Pygostylia (extinct) The earliest birds with a modern pygostyle: a reduction and fusion of the tail vertebrae; possibly a paraphyletic group. Two types of pygostyle are known, a rod-shaped one found in Confuciusornithidae, Enantiornithes and some non-avian theropods such as Nomingia, and a plowshare-shaped one, only known in the lineage leading to modern birds. It is not certain that the pygostyles found in birds are indeed synapomorphies.
†Chongmingia zhengi Wang et al. 2016 †Confuciusornithiformes Hou et al. 1995 †Proornis coreae Lim 1993 (nomen nudum) †Zhongornis haoae Gao et al. 2008 - confuciusornithid? †Confuciusornithidae Hou et al. 1995 †Changchengornis hengdaoziensis Ji, Chiappe & Ji 1999 (Early Cretaceous) †Eoconfuciusornis zhengi Zhang, Zhou & Benton 2008 (Early Cretaceous) †Evgenavis nobilis O'Connor, Averianov & Zelenkov 2014 †Confuciusornis Hou et al. 1995 [Jinzhouornis Hou et al. 2002] (Early Cretaceous) †Omnivoropterygiformes Czerkas & Ji 2002 [Sapeornithiformes Zhou & Zhang 2006] †Omnivoropterygidae Czerkas & Ji 2002 [Sapeornithidae Zhou & Zhang 2006] †Omnivoropteryx sinousaorum Czerkas & Qiang Ji 2002 (Early Cretaceous) †Sapeornis chaoyangensis Zhou & Zhang 2002a [Didactylornis jii Yuan 2008; Sapeornis angustis Provini, Zhou & Zhang 2009; Shenshiornis primita Hu et al. 2010] (Early Cretaceous)
Enantiornithes (extinct)
The taxonomic list of enantiornithine groups presented here follows a summary published by Thomas R. Holz Jr. in 2011. †Enantiornithes
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