Dino card No. 0484 of 2,027

Dapingfangornis

Say it: DAH-ping-fang-OR-nis

Name means: “Dapingfang bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Dapingfangornis was a small, feathered dinosaur that could fly. It lived about 120 million years ago in what is now China. This bird-like creature had a thorn on its nose and fancy tail feathers.1 2

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

China (Liaoning), in the Jiufotang Formation3 1

Food

Meat3

Length

0.1 to 0.3 m3

estimated from PBDB adult length range (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?

How big was Dapingfangornis compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Dapingfangornis had a unique thorn-like process on its nasal bones, which has not been found in any other known fossil bird.1

It is one of the earliest known enantiornithine birds with well-preserved ornamental tail feathers.2

Its sternum (breastbone) had one long and one short lateral process, which is different from other early birds.1

The fossil was found in Dapingfang Town, which is why it got its name.1

Scientists used CT scanning to see new details of its skull and skeleton that were hidden by rock.2

It lived during the Aptian age, about 121 to 113 million years ago, alongside many other early birds.3

AI-made picture of Dapingfangornis — An AI-made picture of how Dapingfangornis 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 Dapingfangornis

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

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: Some people think all birds with teeth are not dinosaurs.

Truth: Dapingfangornis is a dinosaur, specifically a type of avialan dinosaur, and it had a beak-like mouth, not teeth.3

For dino experts

Scientific name: Dapingfangornis
Named by: Li et al. 20064
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Eoenantiornithidae4
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae4
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)4
Rock formations: Jiufotang4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: It was first named by Li et al. in 2006 based on a complete skeleton with a skull found in the Jiufotang Formation in western Liaoning, China.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly where Dapingfangornis sits in the bird family tree, as new studies suggest it may belong to a previously unrecognized group of early enantiornithines.2

Where the facts come from

New Eoenantiornithid Bird from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Western Liaoning, China (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
Redescription and phylogenetic affinities of the Early Cretaceous enantiornithine Dapingfangornis sentisorhinus (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Dapingfangornis 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