Dino card No. 0931 of 2,027

Juehuaornis

Say it: JWEH-hwah-OR-nis

Name means: “Juehua Island bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Juehuaornis was a bird-like dinosaur that lived in what is now China, about 122 million years ago. It had a very long beak that made up 70% of its skull, perfect for snatching up prey.1

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Lingyuan, Liaoning, China1 3

Food

Meat3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Juehuaornis had a beak that was 70% as long as its whole skull, which is very unusual for early birds.1

Its name comes from Juehua Island, a place off the coast of Liaoning in China.1

The only known fossil of Juehuaornis is almost complete, with the skeleton and even some feather impressions preserved on a stone slab.1

Juehuaornis lived during the Aptian age of the Early Cretaceous, about 122 million years ago.1 2

Scientists think Juehuaornis might be the same animal as two other bird dinosaurs, Changzuiornis and Dingavis, which were found in the same rock layer.1

AI-made picture of Juehuaornis — An AI-made picture of how Juehuaornis 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.

Ask Rex about Juehuaornis

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Juehuaornis
Named by: Wang et al. 20153
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Ornithuromorpha3
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: Juehuaornis was named in 2015 by Wang Ren-fe, Wang Yan, and Hu Dongyu. The fossil was found near Lingyuan, China, in the Jiufotang Formation.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Juehuaornis is a separate species from Changzuiornis and Dingavis, or if all three are actually the same animal.1

Where the facts come from

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

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex