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Mengciusornis

Say it: MENG-shee-OR-nis

Name means: “Mencius bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Mengciusornis was an early bird that lived in China during the time of the dinosaurs. It had sharp, curved teeth in its upper beak, but the rest of its mouth was toothless. This little creature could fly and probably hunted for insects and small animals.1 2

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Lamadong, Jianchang, Liaoning Province, China (Jiufotang Formation)3 1

Food

Meat3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Mengciusornis had teeth only in the front part of its upper jaw, called the premaxilla. Its close relative Schizooura had no teeth at all.1 2

The only known fossil of Mengciusornis is a well-preserved skeleton that even shows remains of feathers.1

Mengciusornis lived about 121 to 113 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period.3

Its name honors the ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius, and 'dentatus' means 'toothed' in Latin.1

Mengciusornis had a V-shaped wishbone (furcula) and a large, rectangular crest on its upper arm bone.2

Scientists think tooth loss in early birds happened in different ways in different groups. Mengciusornis shows a unique pattern where the front of the upper jaw kept teeth while the rest of the mouth lost them.2

AI-made picture of Mengciusornis — An AI-made picture of how Mengciusornis 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: Mengciusornis
Named by: Wang et al. 20203
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Schizoouridae3
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: Mengciusornis was named in 2019 by Wang and colleagues based on a single fossil skeleton (IVPP V26275) from the Jiufotang Formation in China.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Mengciusornis is related to other early birds and how tooth loss evolved in its lineage.2

Where the facts come from

Mengciusornis (en.wikipedia.org)
New toothed Early Cretaceous ornithuromorph bird reveals intraclade diversity in pattern of tooth loss: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology: Vol 18 , No 8 - Get Access (tandfonline.com)
Mengciusornis 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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