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Fortipesavis

Say it: FOR-tih-PAY-say-vis

Name means: “strong-footed bird”1

Ate: InsectsEarly birdsLate Cretaceous

Fortipesavis was a tiny bird that lived about 98 million years ago. It had a very strong and wide fourth toe, which helped it grip onto thin, wobbly branches like a kingfisher. Its foot was so unusual that scientists named it the 'strong-footed bird'.1 2

Lived

100 to 94 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Myanmar (Kachin State, Hukawng Valley)1 2

Food

Insects1 2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Fortipesavis is known only from a partial left foot preserved in amber, which is a piece of fossilized tree resin.1

Its fourth toe was almost twice as wide as its second toe, a feature not seen in any other bird, living or extinct.1 2

The foot of Fortipesavis had thick, padded toes with deep grooves between them, which helped it grip tightly onto branches.2

This bird lived in a mangrove forest environment, where it probably perched on thin, swaying branches while hunting for insects.1 2

The fossil of Fortipesavis was found in a piece of amber that weighs only 2.68 grams and is about the size of a large coin.1

Scientists used micro-CT scanning to study the foot inside the amber without damaging the fossil.1

AI-made picture of Fortipesavis — An AI-made picture of how Fortipesavis 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: Fortipesavis
Named by: Clark and O’Connor 20214
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Enantiornithes4
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae4
Age of the rocks: 100 to 94 million years (Cenomanian)4
Countries: Myanmar4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Fortipesavis was named in 2021 by Alexander Clark and Jingmai O'Connor based on a foot preserved in amber from Myanmar. The fossil was first described in 2019 by Lida Xing and colleagues.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Fortipesavis ate insects or fish, because its foot is similar to both modern kingfishers (which eat fish) and bee-eaters (which eat insects).2

Where the facts come from

Fortipesavis (en.wikipedia.org)
Frontiers | Exploring the Ecomorphology of Two Cretaceous Enantiornithines With Unique Pedal Morphology (frontiersin.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Fortipesavis 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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