Named By: | L. A. Nesov in 1992 |
Time Period: | Late Cretaceous, 85 Ma |
Location: | Uzbekistan - Bissekty Formation |
Size: | Unknown due to lack of remains |
Diet: | Uncertain |
Fossil(s): | Vertebrae |
Classification: | | Chordata | Dinosauria | Saurischia | Theropoda | Enantiornithes | Euenantiornithes | |
Kuszholia (meaning "Milky Way bird" after the Kazakh term for the Milky Way, kus zholi) is the name given to a genus of primitive birds or bird-like dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous. They were possibly coelurosaurs close to the ancestry of birds, although most scientists have considered it an avialan (either a primitive ornithuran or enantiornithine). Fossils were found in the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum desert of Uzbekistan.
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).