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Alethoalaornis

Say it: al-eth-oh-AL-ohr-nis
Name means: “true wing bird”1
Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Alethoalaornis was a small, toothed bird that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. It had a long, sharp beak and claws on its wings, and it probably hunted for insects and small animals on the ground.12

Lived
121 to 113 million years ago3
Early Cretaceous
Fossils found in
Liaoning, China1
Food
Meat1
Length
0.1 to 0.3 m1
estimated from PBDB adult length category (10 to <100 cm)

When did it live?

Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

Alethoalaornis about 0.3 m longA house cat about 0.5 mA dog about 1 mA bicycle about 1.8 m

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cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Alethoalaornis had a long and sharp beak, and it still had a few teeth.1

2

Its wing bones had air holes (pneumatic foramina), which helped make its skeleton lighter for flight.1

3

This bird had small, weak claws on its wing fingers, but its foot claws were very long.1

4

Alethoalaornis lived about 121 to 113 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period.1

5

It was a ground-dwelling bird that probably spent most of its time on the ground rather than in trees.1

6

The name Alethoalaornis means 'true wing bird' in Greek.1

AI-madeAI-made picture of Alethoalaornis
An AI-made picture of how Alethoalaornis 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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Scientific name
Alethoalaornis
Named by
Li et al. 20073
Group
Early birds
Family / clade
Alethoalaornithidae3
Classification
Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks
121 to 113 million years (Aptian)3
Rock formations
Jiufotang3
Countries
China3
Fossil records
1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery
Alethoalaornis was named and described by Li Li, Hu Dongyu, Duan Yu, Gong Enpu, and Hou Lianhai in 2007, based on a fossil found in the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, China.21

Where the facts come from

  1. PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
  2. Alethoalaornis agitornis - Avibase (avibase.bsc-eoc.org)
  3. Alethoalaornis in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: Early birds

ArchaeopteryxEarly birdsHesperornisEarly birdsIchthyornisEarly birdsBaptornisEarly birdsJurapteryxEarly birdsGobipteryxEarly birds

Also from the same time: Early Cretaceous

StegosaurusPlated dinosIguanodonBeaked plant-eatersGiganotosaurusMeat-eating dinosMicroraptorRaptorsDeinonychusRaptorsBaryonyxSpinosaurs
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