| Kuszholia Temporal range: Turonian
| |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| 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
| |
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. 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).[1]
