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Eoneophron

Say it: ee-oh-NEE-oh-fron

Name means: “dawn Neophron, after the Egyptian vulture sometimes called the pharaoh's chicken”1

Ate: A bit of everythingOdd feathered dinosLate Cretaceous

Eoneophron was a small, feathery dinosaur that lived at the very end of the Cretaceous period. It was an oviraptorosaur, a group of bird-like theropods with beaks instead of teeth. This dinosaur was about the size of a turkey and probably ate plants and small animals.1

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago5

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Meade County, South Dakota, USA, in the Hell Creek Formation1 2

Food

A bit of everything5

Weight

78 kg2

estimate

Height

1 m3

at the hips

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How tall was it?

at the hips

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 2.5 big dogs

as heavy as 16 watermelonsup to the handle of a door

How big was Eoneophron compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Eoneophron was named in 2024, making it one of the newest dinosaur discoveries.1

Its fossils were first bought for $5,000 at a commercial sale and then donated to a museum for research.2

Scientists used bone histology, looking at the microscopic structure, to find out that this dinosaur was an adult, not a baby of a bigger relative.1

Eoneophron lived alongside the much larger caenagnathid Anzu wyliei in the same time and place.1

Like other oviraptorosaurs, Eoneophron had a beak without teeth and was covered in feathers.1

The Hell Creek Formation where Eoneophron was found is famous for fossils of Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex.1

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

?How big was Eoneophron?

Eoneophron weighed about 78 kilograms (172 lb), which is roughly the size of an adult human. It was smaller than its relative Anzu, which weighed between 202 and 342 kilograms (445 to 754 lb).2 4

?What did Eoneophron eat?

Scientists think Eoneophron was probably an omnivore, eating both plants and small animals. It had a toothless beak, like other oviraptorosaurs.4

?Did Eoneophron have feathers?

Yes, Eoneophron was covered in complex feathers, much like modern birds. It was a birdlike dinosaur with wings and a toothless beak.4

?When did Eoneophron live?

Eoneophron lived at the very end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. Its fossils were found in the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota, USA.2 4

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Eoneophron
Named by: Atkins-Weltman et al. 20245
Group: Odd feathered dinos
Family / clade: Caenagnathidae5
Classification: Theropoda > Oviraptorosauria5
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)5
Rock formations: Hell Creek5
Countries: USA5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: The fossil was collected from the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota and bought by Kyle Atkins-Weltman in 2020. He donated it to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and scientists named it Eoneophron infernalis in 2024.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating how many different caenagnathid species lived in the Hell Creek Formation, since their fossils are rare and often broken.1

Where the facts come from

Theropoda) from the end-Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation ... (journals.plos.org)
Eoneophron (en.wikipedia.org)
February 5, 2024 | Everything Dinosaur Blog (blog.everythingdinosaur.com)
New 'Chicken from Hell' Discovered | Scientific American (scientificamerican.com)
Eoneophron 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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