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Microenantiornis

Say it: MY-kro-en-an-tee-OR-nis
Name means: “tiny opposite bird”1
Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Microenantiornis was a tiny bird that lived during the time of dinosaurs. It was about the size of a sparrow and could probably fly between trees. Scientists found its skeleton in China.12

Lived
121 to 113 million years ago3
Early Cretaceous
Fossils found in
Liaoning Province, China12
Length
0.1 to 0.2 m (0.3 to 0.7 ft)1
estimated from adult length range in PBDB (10 to <100 mm)
Top speed
about 27 km/h (17 mph)
Flying, estimate

When did it live?

Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

Microenantiornis about 0.2 m long (0.7 ft)A house cat about 0.5 m (1.6 ft)A dog about 1 m (3.3 ft)A bicycle about 1.8 m (5.9 ft)
as long as 6 toy building bricks in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 14 seconds

How big was Microenantiornis compared to YOU?

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How fast was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Microenantiornis belongs to a group of ancient birds called enantiornithines, which had teeth and claws on their wings.2

2

Its name means 'tiny opposite bird' because it was small and had a different shoulder joint from modern birds.1

3

This bird lived about 121 to 113 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period.1

4

The only known fossil of Microenantiornis was found in the Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, China.1

5

Scientists think Microenantiornis lived in trees because its hindlimb bones show features of an arboreal (tree-dwelling) animal.2

6

Its breastbone (sternum) was simple and lacked a keel, which is different from modern flying birds.2

AI-madeAI-made picture of Microenantiornis
An AI-made picture of how Microenantiornis 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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Scientific name
Microenantiornis
Named by
Wei and Li 20173
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
Microenantiornis was named by Chinese paleontologists Wei Zhaoying and Li Li in 2017. They described it based on a single skeleton (specimen PMOL-AB00171) found near Chaoyang, Liaoning, China.11
Still debated
Scientists are not sure exactly how Microenantiornis flew, because its breastbone lacked a keel where flight muscles attach in modern birds.2

Where the facts come from

  1. PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
  2. [dinosaur] Microenantiornis, enantiornithine bird from Lower Cretaceous of Liaoning, China (dml.reptilis.net)
  3. Microenantiornis in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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Also from the same time: Early Cretaceous

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