Dino card No. 1348 of 2,027

Palaeolimnornis

Say it: PAL-ee-oh-LIM-nore-niss

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Palaeolimnornis was a flying reptile that lived about 143 to 137 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period. It was a pterosaur, not a dinosaur, and it soared over ancient Romania. Scientists think it ate fish, catching them from the water with its beak.3 1

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

Lived

143 to 137 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Food

Fish3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Palaeolimnornis was originally named Limnornis in 1984, but that name was already used for a bird, so it was changed to Palaeolimnornis in 1985.3 1

The fossils of Palaeolimnornis were found in a bauxite mine in Romania, inside an ancient cave system that was filled with sediment.1

Some scientists think Palaeolimnornis might actually be a pterosaur, not a bird, because its bones are very similar to other pterosaurs.3 1

The name Palaeolimnornis means 'ancient lake bird', even though it was probably a flying reptile.3

Palaeolimnornis lived during the Berriasian age, which is the very beginning of the Cretaceous period, about 143 to 137 million years ago.3

AI-made picture of Palaeolimnornis — An AI-made picture of how Palaeolimnornis 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: Palaeolimnornis
Named by: Jurcsák and Kessler 19853
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Pterosauria3
Classification: Pterosauria3
Age of the rocks: 143 to 137 million years (Berriasian)3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Palaeolimnornis was first named by Jurcsák and Kessler in 1985, based on fossils found in the Cornet bauxite mine in Romania. The fossils were collected in the late 1970s and early 1980s.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Palaeolimnornis was really a pterosaur or a bird, because the fossils are very fragmentary. Some researchers consider it a nomen dubium (doubtful name).3 1

Where the facts come from

Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) birds and pterosaurs from the Cornet bauxite mine, Romania (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Palaeolimnornis 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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