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Elbretornis

Say it: el-breh-TOR-nis

Name means: “El Brete bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsLate Cretaceous

Elbretornis was a small, ancient bird that lived about 70 million years ago in what is now Argentina. It was a type of enantiornithine, a group of toothed birds that were common during the time of dinosaurs. This little bird probably ran on the ground and ate meat.1 2

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago2

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Estancia El Brete, Salta Province, Argentina1 2

Food

Meat2

Length

0.33 m1

estimated from the holotype

Weight

0.57 kg1

Height

0.24 m1

at the hips

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

lighter than a house catas heavy as 5 bananas

How big was Elbretornis compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Elbretornis is known from only one partial skeleton, including a left humerus and parts of the wing and leg.1

It lived during the Maastrichtian age, the very end of the Cretaceous Period, just before the dinosaurs went extinct.1 2

The name Elbretornis honors the El Brete fossil site in Argentina, where many ancient birds have been found.1

Elbretornis was a ground-dwelling bird, and scientists think it was a good runner.2

It was about the size of a modern pigeon, measuring 33 cm (13 in) long and weighing around 570 g (20 oz).1

Some scientists wonder if Elbretornis might actually be the same as another bird from the same site, like Lectavis or Yungavolucris, but Elbretornis was smaller.1

AI-made picture of Elbretornis — An AI-made picture of how Elbretornis 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: Elbretornis
Named by: Walker and Dyke 20092
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Euenantiornithes2
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae2
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)2
Rock formations: Lecho2
Countries: Argentina2
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Elbretornis was named by Cyril A. Walker and Gareth J. Dyke in 2009. The only known fossil was found at the El Brete locality in Argentina.1 2
Still debated: Because only a few bones are known, scientists are not sure if Elbretornis is a distinct species or if it belongs to another enantiornithine bird from the same area.1

Where the facts come from

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

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