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Parahongshanornis

Say it: PAIR-ah-HONG-shan-OR-nis

Name means: “near Hongshanornis, named for its close relationship to that bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Parahongshanornis was a tiny, feathered bird that lived about 120 million years ago in what is now China. It could probably fly, but its legs were longer than its wings, so it might have spent a lot of time running or wading.1 2

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Fossils were found near Yuanjiawa, Chaoyang, in Liaoning Province, China.1 3

Food

Meat3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Parahongshanornis had a U-shaped furcula (wishbone) that was much longer than it was wide, which is a special feature of its family.2

Its legs were longer than its wings, which is unusual for a bird and suggests it was a good runner or wader.2

The fossil includes soft parts like feathers, even though the skull is missing.1

It lived about 120 million years ago, during the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous.1

Its thigh bone (femur) was only 24 millimetres long, making it a very small bird.1

The sternum (breastbone) had a keel along its whole length and two pairs of deep notches at the back edge.1

AI-made picture of Parahongshanornis — An AI-made picture of how Parahongshanornis 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: Parahongshanornis
Named by: Li et al. 20113
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Hongshanornithidae3
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: Parahongshanornis was named by Li Li, Wang Jingqi, and Hou Shilin in 2011, based on a nearly complete skeleton found near Yuanjiawa, Chaoyang, China.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how Parahongshanornis is related to other early birds, because it was assigned to its family based on anatomy rather than a computer analysis.1

Where the facts come from

Parahongshanornis (en.wikipedia.org)
A NEW ORNITHURINE BIRD (HONGSHANORNITHIDAE) FROM THE JIUFOTANG FORMATION OF CHAOYANG, LIAONING, CHINA (vertpala.ac.cn)
Parahongshanornis in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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