Dino card No. 0647 of 2,027

Explorornis

Say it: ex-plor-OR-nis

Name means: “discovered bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsLate Cretaceous

Explorornis was a tiny bird that lived about 90 million years ago in what is now Uzbekistan. It was a meat-eater and probably flew through ancient forests catching insects and other small prey.1 2

Lived

94 to 90 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Bissekty Formation, Kyzyl Kum, Uzbekistan1 2

Food

Meat2

Length

0.15 to 0.25 m1

estimated body length, not including tail; one species may have been over 25 cm

Top speed

about 26 km/h (16 mph)

Flying, estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How big was Explorornis compared to YOU?

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

How fast was it?

A person walking about 5 km/h (3 mph)

A kid on a bike about 22 km/h (14 mph)

Explorornis about 26 km/h (16 mph)

A galloping horse about 65 km/h (40 mph)

A cheetah about 100 km/h (62 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

Explorornis is known only from its coracoid bones, which are part of the shoulder.1

The name Explorornis means 'discovered bird' in Latin and Greek.1

Two species are known: E. nessovi and E. walkeri, both named after famous paleontologists.1

E. walkeri was originally thought to belong to the South American bird Enantiornis, but later scientists moved it to Explorornis.1

These birds lived during the Turonian stage, about 90 million years ago.1 2

Explorornis was a ground-dwelling bird that laid eggs.2

AI-made picture of Explorornis — An AI-made picture of how Explorornis 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: Explorornis
Named by: Panteleyev 19983
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Alexornithidae3
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks: 94 to 90 million years (Turonian)3
Rock formations: Bissekty3
Countries: Uzbekistan3
Fossil records: 3 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Explorornis was named by Russian paleontologist Andrey Panteleyev in 1998. The type species is E. nessovi, named after Lev Alexandrovich Nesov.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where Explorornis fits in the bird family tree because only its shoulder bones have been found.1

Where the facts come from

Explorornis (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Explorornis 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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