Still hotly contested by many biologists, the newly named clade Archaeoplumia includes only one genera, African Archaeopluma (gen. nov.).
SPECIES[]
Only one species of Archaeoplumia has been identified.
Manticorant (Echinornithoides protervus)[]
Manticorant, Echinornithoides protervus (India)
The manticorant has proven to be a difficult beast to classify. Its skeleton has some derived features that closely align it with maniraptorans, but it also several peculiarly archaic features, and not only in the skeleton; the manicorant's spiny integument seems to be even more primitive than that of errosaurs. DNA analysis seems to place the manicorant somewhere inside Tyrannoraptora, and yet outside Maniraptora. Currently it is classified within Archaoplumia together its equally primitive African cousin, Archaeopluma (sp.)
One of the more interesting skeletal characters of the manticorant is a pygostyle-like fusion of the last caudal vertebrae. This structure seems to have evolved to act as a base for the numerous large quills at the tip of the manticorant's tail.