Dino card No. 1347 of 2,027

Palaeocursornis

Say it: PAL-ee-oh-kur-SOR-nis

Name means: “ancient running bird”2

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Palaeocursornis was a small flying reptile, not a dinosaur. It lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 143 to 137 million years ago. Its fossils were found in Romania, in a mine that was once a cave system.2

Fun fact: pterosaurs flew over the dinosaurs, but they were their cousins, not dinosaurs themselves.

Lived

143 to 137 million years ago2

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Brusturi Mine, Cornet, Romania2 1

Food

Fish2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Palaeocursornis was originally thought to be a bird, but later scientists determined it was a pterosaur, a flying reptile.2 1

Its name means 'ancient running bird', even though it was not a bird and not a runner. It flew instead.2

The only known fossil of Palaeocursornis is a partial thigh bone (femur). That makes it very hard to know exactly what it looked like.2 1

Some scientists think Palaeocursornis might not be a valid species at all. They call it a nomen dubium, which means a 'doubtful name'.2 1

The fossil was found in a bauxite mine in Romania, inside a lens of rock that was once part of an ancient cave system.1

The rock that held Palaeocursornis is between 143.1 and 137.05 million years old, from the Berriasian stage of the Early Cretaceous.2

AI-made picture of Palaeocursornis — An AI-made picture of how Palaeocursornis 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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Myth buster

Myth: Palaeocursornis was an ancient bird.

Truth: Despite its name meaning 'ancient running bird', Palaeocursornis is now classified as a pterosaur, a flying reptile, not a bird.2 1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Palaeocursornis
Named by: Kessler and Jurcsák 19862
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Pterosauria2
Classification: Pterosauria2
Age of the rocks: 143 to 137 million years (Berriasian)2
Rock formations: Lower Bauxite2
Countries: Romania2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Palaeocursornis was named by Kessler and Jurcsák in 1986, based on a single thigh bone found in the Cornet bauxite mine in Romania.2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Palaeocursornis is a valid species. Some think the single fossil bone is not enough to tell it apart from other pterosaurs.2 1

Where the facts come from

Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) birds and pterosaurs from the Cornet bauxite mine, Romania (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
Palaeocursornis 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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