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Fortunguavis

Say it: FOR-tun-GWA-vis

Name means: “strong claw bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Fortunguavis was a small, feathered dinosaur that could climb trees like a modern woodpecker. It lived about 120 million years ago in what is now China. Its strong, curved claws helped it grip tree trunks tightly.1 2

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Fossils were found in the Jiufotang Formation in northeastern China, at a site called Xiao-tai-zi.3 1

Food

Meat3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Fortunguavis had a wishbone that was strongly curved downward, which is unusual and helped it climb.2

Its foot had a special shape: the second toe bone was much shorter than the fourth, which is rare among its relatives.2

The claws on its toes were extremely curved, even more than in other similar birds, showing it was a great tree climber.1 2

It had very strong and thick leg bones compared to other early birds, which helped it climb and move on the ground.2

Fortunguavis lived during the Aptian stage, which was about 121 to 113 million years ago.3

AI-made picture of Fortunguavis — An AI-made picture of how Fortunguavis 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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Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Fortunguavis was a true bird like modern birds.

Truth: It was actually a type of enantiornithine, a group of ancient birds that went extinct, and it had teeth and claws on its wings.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Fortunguavis
Named by: Wang et al. 20143
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Enantiornithes3
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)3
Rock formations: Jiufotang3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Scientists named Fortunguavis in 2014 after studying a fossil from the Jiufotang Formation in China. The name means 'strong claw bird' because of its powerful foot claws.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Fortunguavis used its strong claws, whether for climbing trees or for other activities.2

Where the facts come from

Fortunguavis (en.wikipedia.org)
A new robust enantiornithine bird from the Lower Cretaceous of China with scansorial adaptations (tandfonline.com)
Fortunguavis 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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