Dino card No. 0284 of 2,027

Boluochia

Say it: bo-LOO-chee-ah

Name means: “named after the fossil site Boluochi”5

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Boluochia was a small, toothed bird that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. It had a long snout and strong feet for perching on branches. Scientists once thought it had a hooked beak like a hawk, but now they think it had a normal, toothed beak.1

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago5

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Beishan Quarry, Boluochi, Liaoning Province, China5 1

Food

Meat5 2

Length

0.155 to 0.18 m3 4

estimated from skeletal reconstruction; 155 mm from holotype description, 180 mm from femoral diameter scaling

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How big was Boluochia compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Boluochia lived about 120 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period.1

The only known fossil of Boluochia is very poorly preserved, making it hard to study.1

Boluochia is part of a group called enantiornithes, which were the most common birds during the Cretaceous.1

Its fourth toe was separated from the others, which might have helped it grip branches differently.1

Boluochia is very similar to another bird called Longipteryx, and some scientists think it might be a juvenile Longipteryx.1

AI-made picture of Boluochia — An AI-made picture of how Boluochia 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.

Ask Rex about Boluochia

Rex only answers questions about this page. 10 questions a month.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

Myth buster

Myth: Boluochia had a hooked, raptor-like beak for tearing meat.

Truth: The fossil is badly preserved, and later studies show it likely had a long, toothed snout like other longipterygid birds.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Boluochia
Named by: Zhou 19955
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Longipterygidae5
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae5
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)5
Rock formations: Jiufotang5
Countries: China5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: Boluochia was named by Chinese paleontologist Zhou Zhonghe in 1995 based on a single fossil from the Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, China.5 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Boluochia is a separate species or just a young Longipteryx, because the only fossil is so poorly preserved.1

Where the facts come from

Boluochia (en.wikipedia.org)
DISCOVERY OF A NEW ENANTIORNITHINE BIRD FROM THE EARLY CRETACEOUS OF LIAONING, CHINA (vertpala.ac.cn)
Details on Boluochia (dml.reptilis.net)
Mesozoic Bird Sizes (dml.reptilis.net)
Boluochia 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.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex