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Elsornis

Say it: EL-sor-nis

Name means: “sand bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsLate Cretaceous

Elsornis was a bird that lived in the Gobi Desert about 80 million years ago. It might have been flightless, like an ostrich, and used its strong legs to run after small animals and bugs.1 2

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Togrogiin Shiree, South Gobi Aimak, Mongolia1 4

Food

Meat1 4

Length

0.25 m3

body length, not including tail feathers

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How big was Elsornis compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Elsornis had a wishbone filled with air, which is rare among its relatives, the enantiornithean birds.1 2

Its upper arm was much longer than its lower arm, a feature that helps scientists think it could not fly.2

Elsornis is known from a single, well-preserved skeleton that includes many bones like limbs, vertebrae, and ribs.1 2

It lived during the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous, about 80 million years ago.1 2

Elsornis belongs to a group called Enantiornithes, also known as 'opposite birds', which had a different shoulder joint from modern birds.1 2

If Elsornis could not fly, it would be one of the few flightless birds from the time of dinosaurs.1 2

AI-made picture of Elsornis — An AI-made picture of how Elsornis 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.

you asked

Most asked questions about Elsornis

?Was Elsornis a dinosaur?

Yes, it was a bird, and birds are a type of dinosaur called avialan theropods.1

?Could Elsornis fly?

Probably not. Scientists think it was flightless or nearly flightless, based on its chest bones.1

?What did Elsornis eat?

It probably ate small animals and bugs, and may have also scavenged dead animals left by other carnivores.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Elsornis
Named by: Chiappe et al. 20074
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Enantiornithes4
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae4
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)4
Rock formations: Djadokhta4
Countries: Mongolia4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Elsornis was named in 2007 by Luis Chiappe and his team. The fossil was found in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and is kept at the Mongolian Palaeontological Center.1 4
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Elsornis was completely flightless or could still glide like Archaeopteryx.1

Where the facts come from

Elsornis (en.wikipedia.org)
A Dinosaur A Day: Elsornis keni (a-dinosaur-a-day.com)
Elsornis – Nix Illustration (nixillustration.com)
Elsornis 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.

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