Dino card No. 0357 of 2,027

Cathayornis

Say it: KATH-ay-OR-nis

Name means: “Chinese bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Cathayornis was a small, toothed bird that lived during the Early Cretaceous. It had big claws on its wing fingers and could perch in trees. It was one of the first enantiornithean birds found in China.1

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Jiufotang Formation, Liaoning, China1 4

Food

Meat4

Length

0.1 to 0.15 m1

estimate based on small size

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How big was Cathayornis compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Cathayornis had a long, toothy snout and perching feet, like many enantiornithean birds.1

It had large claws on its first two fingers that helped support its wings.1

Only one definite fossil of Cathayornis yandica has been found, catalog number IVPP V9769.1

Cathayornis lived about 120 million years ago, during the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous.1

Some scientists once thought Cathayornis was the same as Sinornis, but later studies showed they are different.1

Several other species were once called Cathayornis, but most have been reclassified or are now considered doubtful.1

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

you asked

Most asked questions about Cathayornis

?How big was Cathayornis?

It was a small bird, but the sources do not give exact measurements like length or weight.3

?Did Cathayornis have teeth?

Yes, it had a slightly elongated, toothy snout.3

?Was Cathayornis a dinosaur?

Yes, it is a bird, and birds are a type of dinosaur called avialan dinosaurs.3

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Myth buster

Myth: Cathayornis had a long bony tail without a pygostyle.

Truth: A re-examination showed that Cathayornis had a normal enantiornithean tail with a pygostyle; earlier confusion came from misidentified hip bones.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Cathayornis
Named by: Zhou et al. 19924
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Enantiornithes4
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae4
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)4
Rock formations: Jiufotang4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 3 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Cathayornis was named by Zhou, Jin, and Zhang in 1992 based on a fossil from the Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, China.1 2
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether some other fossils, like those of Largirostrornis and Cuspirostrisornis, are actually the same species as Cathayornis yandica.1

Where the facts come from

Cathayornis (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Cathayornis (en.wikipedia.org)
Cathayornis 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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