Dino card No. 1427 of 2,027

Piksi

Say it: PIK-see

Name means: “big bird or chicken in the Blackfoot language, and strange elbow in Latin”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Piksi was a small flying reptile that lived about 75 million years ago. It had a wingspan of about 1 meter (3.3 feet), which is as wide as a big bird's wings. Piksi used its wings to fly over ancient Montana, USA.1 2

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

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Bob's Vacation Site, Glacier County, Montana, USA3 2

Food

Fish3

Wingspan

1 m2 1

estimated from humerus size compared to other pterosaurs

Top speed

about 36 km/h (22 mph)

Flying, estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How wide were its wings?

as long as 2 house cats nose to tail

How big was Piksi compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast was it?

A person walking about 5 km/h (3 mph)

A kid on a bike about 22 km/h (14 mph)

Piksi about 36 km/h (22 mph)

A galloping horse about 65 km/h (40 mph)

A cheetah about 100 km/h (62 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

Piksi was first thought to be a bird, but scientists later realized it was a pterosaur, a flying reptile.2 1

The only known fossils of Piksi are parts of its right wing: the humerus, ulna, and radius bones.3 1

Piksi lived during the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous, about 75 million years ago.3 1

Piksi belongs to a group of pterosaurs called Ornithocheiroidea, which had teeth and were common in the Early Cretaceous.2

The fossils were found in 1991 by Gloria Jean Siebrecht on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana.1

Piksi was very small for a pterosaur, with a wingspan of only about 1 meter (3.3 feet).2 1

AI-made picture of Piksi — An AI-made picture of how Piksi 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 Piksi

?Is Piksi a dinosaur?

No, Piksi is a pterosaur, a flying reptile, not a dinosaur.1 2

?How big was Piksi?

Piksi was very small for a pterosaur, with a wingspan of about 1 meter (3.3 feet).1 2

?What did Piksi eat?

Nobody knows for sure, but since it belonged to the toothed pterosaur group Ornithocheiroidea, it likely ate fish or small animals.1 2

Ask Rex about Piksi

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Myth buster

Myth: Piksi was a bird.

Truth: Piksi was actually a pterosaur, a flying reptile, not a bird. Scientists reclassified it in 2012.2 1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Piksi
Named by: Varricchio 20023
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Ornithocheiroidea3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)3
Rock formations: Two Medicine3
Countries: USA3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Piksi was named in 2002 by paleontologist David J. Varricchio. The fossils were found in 1991 by Gloria Jean Siebrecht at Bob's Vacation Site in Montana, USA.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Piksi is definitely a pterosaur or might be something else, because the fossils are very fragmentary.1

Where the facts come from

Piksi (en.wikipedia.org)
Systematic reinterpretation of Piksi barbarulna Varricchio, 2002 from the Two Medicine Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Western USA (Montana) as a pterosaur rather than a bird (sciencepress.mnhn.fr)
Piksi 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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