Dino card No. 1231 of 2,027

Nanantius

Say it: nan-AN-tee-us

Name means: “dwarf enantiornithine”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Nanantius was a tiny, ancient bird that lived beside a warm, shallow sea in Australia. It was about the size of a blackbird and probably looked like a mini seagull with claws on its wings.1

Lived

106 to 100 million years ago2

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Queensland, Australia1 2

Food

Meat1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Nanantius is known from only a few bones, including a leg bone and a neck vertebra.1

One of its leg bones was found inside the stomach of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that lived at the same time.1

It belonged to a group of primitive birds called enantiornitheans, which had teeth and clawed wings.1

Nanantius lived about 112 to 100 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period.1

Until 2026, Nanantius was the only named bird from the Cretaceous of Australia.1

Scientists are not 100% sure Nanantius is an enantiornithean because its leg bone is not enough to prove it.1

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

you asked

Most asked questions about Nanantius

?How big was Nanantius?

About the size of a blackbird. It was a tiny bird, probably looking like a miniature seagull.1

?What did Nanantius eat?

It probably ate marine invertebrates and small fish along the coast of the Eromanga Sea.1

?Did Nanantius have teeth?

Yes, it belonged to a group of primitive birds called enantiornitheans, which had teeth and clawed wings.1

?Is Nanantius a dinosaur?

It is an avialan dinosaur, which means it is a bird in the broad sense and a type of theropod dinosaur.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Nanantius
Named by: Molnar 19862
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Alexornithidae2
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae2
Age of the rocks: 106 to 100 million years (Albian)2
Rock formations: Toolebuc2
Countries: Australia2
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Nanantius was named by Ralph Molnar in 1986 based on a leg bone and a neck vertebra found at Warra Station near Boulia, Queensland.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not certain if Nanantius is truly an enantiornithean bird, because its leg bone is not enough to tell for sure.1

Where the facts come from

Nanantius (en.wikipedia.org)
Nanantius 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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