Caenagnathus R. Sternberg, 1940

Caenagnathus R. Sternberg, 1940 (J. Paleont., 14, 81. NcZ) "recent jaw"
see-NAG-na-thus (c.u.: SEE-nag-NAY-thus) (Gr. kaine (feminine of Gr. kainos) "recent, new" + Gr. gnathos "jaw" + -us) (m) named for a toothless mandible with a fused symphysis, originally attributed to a Cretaceous bird resembling Cenozoic (kainos "recent" + zoon "life") and modern forms, thus the name "recent jaw": "The presence of the unfused symphyses in Hesperornis and Ichthyornis, like the presence of teeth in these forms, indicates only that they are more primitive than Caenagnathus...All Cretaceous birds hitherto known from skulls or jaws possess well-developed teeth...our outstanding paleornithologists have always considered toothless birds in America to be confined to post-Cretaceous times. Hence the occurrence of a toothless bird in the Cretaceous of Alberta is unexpected but not necessarily impossible." Now recognized as a small toothless theropod related to Oviraptor. Theropoda Oviraptorisauria Caegnathidae L. Cret. NA. [?= Chirostenotes Gilmore, 1924]

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