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Chaoyangia

Say it: CHOW-yang-ee-uh

Name means: “from Chaoyang, the city in China where it was found”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Chaoyangia was an early bird that lived about 120 million years ago in what is now China. It was a small, fast runner that probably ate insects and other small animals.2 1

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago2

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Beishan Quarry, near Chaoyang, Liaoning Province, China2 1

Food

Meat2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Chaoyangia is known from only one partial skeleton, including vertebrae, ribs, hips, and upper leg bones.1

It had more than eight fused sacral vertebrae (the bones that connect to the hips), which is unusual for early birds.1

Chaoyangia was one of the first fossil birds discovered in the famous Jehol biota of China.1

Its ribs had long, slender, angled uncinate processes, which are bony hooks that help with breathing.1

The upper leg bone (femur) of Chaoyangia had a distinct 'neck' that set it apart from other early birds.1

AI-made picture of Chaoyangia — An AI-made picture of how Chaoyangia 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: Chaoyangia
Named by: Hou and Zhang 19932
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Ornithuromorpha2
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae2
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)2
Rock formations: Jiufotang2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Chaoyangia was named by paleontologists Hou Lianhai and Zhang Jiangyong in 1993, based on a single fossil found in the Jiufotang Formation near Chaoyang, China.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Chaoyangia is the same as another early bird called Songlingornis, because the fossils are so incomplete.1

Where the facts come from

Chaoyangia (en.wikipedia.org)
Chaoyangia in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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