Dino card No. 0849 of 2,027

Iaceornis

Say it: eye-ah-SEE-or-nis

Name means: “Marsh's neglected bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsLate Cretaceous

Iaceornis was a seabird that lived alongside dinosaurs like T. rex. It had strong wings and probably flew over the ancient sea that covered what is now Kansas.1

Lived

86 to 84 million years ago2

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Gove County, Kansas, USA1

Food

Meat2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Iaceornis lived about 83.5 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period.1

Only one fossil of Iaceornis has ever been found, and it is a partial skeleton without a skull.1

For over 120 years, scientists thought this fossil belonged to another bird called Apatornis. In 2004, paleontologist Julia Clarke proved it was a different species.1

The name Iaceornis means 'neglected bird' because the fossil was ignored for so long.1

Iaceornis is more advanced than the toothed bird Ichthyornis but less advanced than modern birds.1

The fossil was first dug up by famous fossil hunter Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877.1

AI-made picture of Iaceornis — An AI-made picture of how Iaceornis 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: Iaceornis
Named by: Clarke 20042
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Ornithurae2
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae2
Age of the rocks: 86 to 84 million years (Santonian)2
Rock formations: Niobrara2
Countries: USA2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: The fossil was collected by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1877 in Kansas. It was first thought to be Apatornis celer, but in 2004 Julia Clarke renamed it Iaceornis marshi after studying its wing bones.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly what Iaceornis looked like because the only fossil is missing its skull.1

Where the facts come from

Iaceornis (en.wikipedia.org)
Iaceornis in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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