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Elektorornis

Say it: el-ek-TOR-nis

Name means: “amber bird”1

Ate: InsectsEarly birdsLate Cretaceous

Elektorornis was a tiny bird that lived about 99 million years ago. It had a super long middle toe, much longer than its other toes. Scientists think it used that long toe to poke into tree bark and find tasty bugs to eat.1 2

Lived

100 to 94 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Angbamo locality, Hukawng Valley, Kachin Province, northern Myanmar2 3

Food

Insects1 2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Elektorornis is the first bird species ever described from fossils found in Burmese amber.1

Its third toe was 20% longer than its whole foot bone (tarsometatarsus). No other known bird, alive or extinct, has such a long toe compared to its foot.2

This bird was smaller than a sparrow. It was an enantiornithine, a group of early birds that lived alongside dinosaurs.1 2

The only known fossil of Elektorornis is a partial right leg and some wing feathers, all preserved in a piece of amber.1 2

Elektorornis had big, curved claws and a long hallux (back toe) that helped it grip branches. It was an arboreal bird, meaning it lived in trees.2

Scientists think Elektorornis may have had a toothless beak to pry into wood, like a woodpecker, to reach insects.1

AI-made picture of Elektorornis — An AI-made picture of how Elektorornis 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: Elektorornis
Named by: Xing et al. 20193
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Enantiornithes3
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks: 100 to 94 million years (Cenomanian)3
Countries: Myanmar3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Elektorornis chenguangi was named in 2019 by Lida Xing and colleagues. The fossil was found in Burmese amber at the Angbamo locality in Myanmar. The species name honors Chen Guang, a curator at the Hupoge Amber Museum.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how Elektorornis used its extra-long middle toe. It might have been for probing tree bark for insects, or for better climbing, or both.2

Where the facts come from

Elektorornis (en.wikipedia.org)
A New Enantiornithine Bird with Unusual Pedal Proportions Found in Amber: Current Biology (cell.com)
Elektorornis in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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