Dino card No. 1067 of 2,027

Linyiornis

Say it: lin-ee-OR-nis

Name means: “Linyi bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Linyiornis was a tiny bird that lived in ancient China. It was about the size of a pigeon and had sharp claws for catching food. This bird is special because scientists found traces of its eggs inside one fossil!1 2

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Liaoning Province, China2

Food

Meat2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

The fossil of Linyiornis is preserved in three dimensions, not squashed flat like many other ancient birds. This let scientists see details that are usually hidden.1

Traces of ovarian follicles were found in the fossil, showing that this individual was a female. These are the structures that would have become eggs.1

Linyiornis had a very strong bump on its upper arm bone for muscle attachment. This suggests it had powerful wing muscles.1

Unlike some later birds, Linyiornis did not have a special pit on its thigh bone for a ligament. This is one clue that helps scientists tell different ancient birds apart.1

Linyiornis lived around 121 to 113 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period. That was the time of many dinosaurs.2

The name Linyiornis means 'Linyi bird', named after Linyi University in China, where one of the scientists worked.1

AI-made picture of Linyiornis — An AI-made picture of how Linyiornis 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: Linyiornis
Named by: Wang et al. 20163
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: Linyiornis was named by Yan Wang and colleagues in 2016. The fossil was found in the Jiufotang Formation in northeastern China.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Linyiornis is related to other ancient birds, because some features on its bones look different depending on how the fossil was preserved.1

Where the facts come from

A new Jehol enantiornithine bird with three-dimensional preservation and ovarian follicles: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: Vol 36 , No 2 - Get Access (tandfonline.com)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Linyiornis 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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