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Crateropteryx

Name means: “bowl wing”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsMiddle Jurassic

Crateropteryx was a small, meat-eating bird that lived during the Jurassic Period. It had a humerus, or upper arm bone, that looked like a modern bird's. Scientists know it from just one fossil bone found in England.1 2

Lived

168 to 165 million years ago3

Middle Jurassic

Fossils found in

Stonesfield Slate quarries, England, United Kingdom1 2

Food

Meat1

Length

0.1 to 1 m1

estimated from humerus length

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 2 house cats nose to tailas long as 6 bananas end to end

How big was Crateropteryx compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Crateropteryx lived about 168 to 165 million years ago, during the Middle Bathonian stage of the Jurassic.1

The only known fossil of Crateropteryx is a humerus, or upper arm bone, which was found in the Taynton Limestone Formation.1

Crateropteryx was named by the paleontologist Harry Seeley in 1900.1

Its full scientific name is Crateropteryx colei.1

Crateropteryx was a ground-dwelling bird that laid eggs.1

The Stonesfield Slate quarries where Crateropteryx was found were once a shallow, marginal marine environment.2

AI-made picture of Crateropteryx — An AI-made picture of how Crateropteryx 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: Crateropteryx
Named by: Seeley 19003
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Carinatae3
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks: 168 to 165 million years (Bathonian)3
Rock formations: Taynton Limestone3
Countries: United Kingdom3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Crateropteryx was named by Harry Seeley in 1900 based on a single humerus fossil. The bone was collected from the Stonesfield Slate quarries in England, possibly as early as the 1790s.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Crateropteryx was, because only one arm bone has been found.1

Where the facts come from

PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
PBDB Collection (paleobiodb.org)
Crateropteryx in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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