Jian: Early Cretaceous taxon based on a pectoral girdle and forelimb (sans manus)

Zhou et al 2026 described
an isolated pectoral girdle and forelimb lacking a wrist and manus from the same Early Cretaceous Formation that earlier yielded 100 smaller birds, including Gansus. The authors considered the new material non-avian, dormaeosaurid, microraptorine, theropod and dinosaur. They named their new genus, Jian changmaensis (Fig 1).

Too little is known of this taxon
(Fig 1) to add it to the large reptile tree (LRT, 2340 taxa) where microraptorines are smaller sisters to dromeosaurids deep in the ancestry of birds. However, the authors also included heavily feathered Zhenyuanlong (Fig 2) in the ancestry of Microraptor and Jian.

That seems likely a mistake due to taxon exclusion.

Minor problem is,
in the LRT Zhenyuanlong (Fig 2) nests basal to tyrannosaurs, apart from microraptorines and birds, convergent in several aspects.

Other minor problem is,
Jian is describe with a fused scapula + coracoid, but no mid-sized theropods have a fused scapula + coracoid in the LRT. Meanwhile, note the breakage in and around the hourglass-shaped coracoid which appears to have been jammed into the scapula with splinters resulting during taphonomy.

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Third minor problem is,
the coracoid is slender = elongated, not disc-like as in Velociraptor and T-rex. That elongated coracoid means Jian was a flapping taxon. The word ‘flap’ is not found in the text. Neither is the word ‘splinter’. Only the publicity (see below) mentions gliding.

Microraptors have a coracoid fenestra.
One is clearly visible in Jian. Early Cretaceous Changyuraptor and Microraptor both have an elongated locked-down coracoid, convergent with flapping birds.

Zhenyuanlong retains a disc-like coracoid.

References
Zhou L-Q et al (5 co-authors) 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 the Carnegie Museum 92(2):89–110.

wiki/Jian_changmaensis

Sci-News publicity reported, “Members of this lineage include Microraptor, the four-winged dinosaur widely regarded as capable of gliding and possibly powered flight. We suspect that Jian changmaensis, like its fellow microraptors, had long feathers on both its arms and its legs, giving it the appearance of having four ‘wings’ that it used to glide. Jian changmaensis and the other microraptors probably weren’t capable of true, powered flight, but they could probably glide like a flying squirrel.”

“It’s the only dinosaur found at this site that wasn’t a bird, it was a carnivore, and it was much bigger than everything else that we’ve found there.”

Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2026/06/21/jian-early-cretaceous-taxon-based-on-a-pectoral-girdle-and-forelimb-sans-manus/