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Shenqiornis

Say it: SHEN-kee-OR-nis

Name means: “Shenqi means 'magical' in Chinese, and ornis means 'bird' in Greek. So it is the 'magical bird'.”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsLate Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Shenqiornis was a small, toothed bird that lived in what is now China. It had a strong beak and sharp teeth, and it probably hunted insects and other small animals. Its skull was built like a reptile's, with two openings behind the eye.1 3

Lived

162 to 121 million years ago3

Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Shenjitu, Qiaotou Formation, northern Hebei, China3 1

Food

Meat3 1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Shenqiornis is known from a nearly complete skeleton with carbonized feather traces, found in China.2

It belonged to a group of ancient birds called enantiornithines, which had teeth and clawed wings.1

Shenqiornis had a large postorbital bone with a long, tapering jugal process, meaning its skull might have been fully diapsid (with two openings behind each eye) like some early birds.1

Its tooth shape is unique among enantiornithines and suggests it had a special diet, possibly eating different prey than its relatives.1

The fossils were found in rocks that are between about 161 and 121 million years old, from the Late Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous.2

AI-made picture of Shenqiornis — An AI-made picture of how Shenqiornis 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: Shenqiornis
Named by: Wang et al. 20103
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Bohaiornithidae3
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks: 162 to 121 million years (Oxfordian / Barremian)3
Rock formations: Qiaotou3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Shenqiornis was named by Xuri Wang and colleagues in 2010. The type specimen, a nearly complete skeleton with feather traces, was found at Shenjitu in the Qiaotou Formation of northern Hebei, China.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly what Shenqiornis ate. Its unusual teeth hint at a special diet, but no one knows for sure what that was.1

Where the facts come from

New Species of Enantiornithes (Aves: Ornithothoraces) from the Qiaotou Formation in Northern Hebei, China (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
paleobiodb.org (paleobiodb.org)
Shenqiornis 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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