Wyleyia

Wyley's one (named in honour of Robert Etheridge Wyley)

• Wyley · Proper noun (English surname) · honouring Robert Etheridge Wyley, English geologist and palaeontologist
• -ia · Latin · standard Latin suffix used to form a genus name from a personal name

Wyleyia is named in honour of Robert Etheridge Wyley, a British geologist and palaeontologist who contributed to early work on Mesozoic vertebrates. The suffix '-ia' is the standard Latinised ending used to form a genus name from a personal name. The genus was based on fragmentary bird or bird-like material from the Early Cretaceous of England. Its exact affinities have long been debated, and it is generally considered a nomen dubium.

Named by

Harrison and Walker

Year named

1973

Period

Early Cretaceous

Stages

Hauterivian – Barremian

Found in

Wealden Group, Sussex, England, UK

Wyleyia is based on a fragmentary humerus from the Wealden Group of England. It was originally described as a bird (class Aves), not a non-avian dinosaur. Some workers have questioned whether it even belongs to birds. Because the material is too fragmentary to diagnose reliably, it is widely treated as a nomen dubium. It is not a dinosaur in the strict sense, though it may represent an early avian.