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Palintropus

Say it: pal-IN-troh-pus

Name means: “ancient turning foot”1

Ate: PlantsEarly birdsLate Cretaceous

Palintropus was a small bird that lived at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs. It could fly and probably ate plants. Its fossils are very rare, so scientists are still figuring out exactly what kind of bird it was.1 2

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago2

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Wyoming, USA, and Alberta, Canada1 2

Food

Plants2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Palintropus lived during the Late Cretaceous, about 76.5 to 66 million years ago.1

Only a few bones of Palintropus have been found, including a coracoid (a shoulder bone) and a scapula (a shoulder blade).1

Scientists disagree about what kind of bird Palintropus was. Some think it was an early relative of chickens and turkeys (galliforms), while others think it was related to shorebirds like gulls and auks.1

The first Palintropus fossil was originally named Cimolopteryx retusa by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1892.1

Palintropus was given its current name by Pierce Brodkorb in 1970.1

One study in 2009 suggested Palintropus was a primitive bird related to Apsaravis, and placed it in a new group called Palintropiformes.1

AI-made picture of Palintropus — An AI-made picture of how Palintropus 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: Palintropus
Named by: Brodkorb 19702
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Quercymegapodiidae2
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae2
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)2
Rock formations: Dinosaur Park2
Countries: Canada2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: The first Palintropus fossil, a shoulder bone, was found in the Lance Formation of Wyoming and named Cimolopteryx retusa by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1892. Pierce Brodkorb gave it the name Palintropus in 1970.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Palintropus was an early galliform (like a chicken) or a more primitive bird related to shorebirds or Apsaravis.1

Where the facts come from

Palintropus (en.wikipedia.org)
Palintropus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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