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Abitusavis

Say it: a-BIT-yoo-SAY-vis

Name means: “wandering bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Abitusavis was a small, toothed bird that lived in what is now China during the Early Cretaceous. It had a long snout full of teeth and probably ate fish and other small animals.2 1

Lived

126 to 120 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Shifo, Ningcheng, Nei Mongol, China (Yixian Formation)3 2

Food

Meat2 1

Length

0.2 to 0.3 m2

estimated from a nearly complete skeleton

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Abitusavis belongs to a group called Yanornithidae, which includes some of the oldest birds that ate fish.1

Its name means 'wandering bird' in Latin.1

Abitusavis lived between about 125 and 119 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous.2

The only known fossil of Abitusavis is a nearly complete skeleton found in the Jehol Biota of China.3 1

It had a long snout packed with many teeth, which helped it catch slippery prey like fish.1

Abitusavis was a ground-dwelling bird that could also fly.2

AI-made picture of Abitusavis — An AI-made picture of how Abitusavis might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Abitusavis
Named by: Wang et al. 20203
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Yanornithidae3
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks: 126 to 120 million years (Barremian / Aptian)3
Rock formations: Yixian3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Abitusavis was named by Wang Min and colleagues in 2020 based on a nearly complete skeleton (IVPP V14606) from the Yixian Formation in China.3 2

Where the facts come from

Two new Early Cretaceous ornithuromorph birds provide insights into the taxonomy and divergence of Yanornithidae (Aves: Ornithothoraces) (tandfonline.com)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Abitusavis in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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