Dino card No. 1727 of 2,027

Sulcavis

Say it: sul-KAY-vis

Name means: “groove bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Sulcavis was a small, toothed bird that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. It had special grooves on its teeth, which no other bird had. This helped it eat hard foods like crunchy insects or seeds.1 2

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Lamadong, Liaoning Province, China3 1

Food

Meat3 1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Sulcavis is the first bird ever found with decorated tooth enamel. Its teeth had grooves on the inside that made them stronger.1 2

It lived about 121 to 125 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period.1

Sulcavis belonged to a group of ancient birds called enantiornitheans, which still had teeth and claws unlike modern birds.1

The fossil was found in the Yixian Formation, a famous rock layer in China that has preserved many feathered dinosaurs and early birds.1

Its name comes from Latin words meaning 'groove bird', because of the grooves on its teeth.1

AI-made picture of Sulcavis — An AI-made picture of how Sulcavis 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: Sulcavis
Named by: O'Connor et al. 20133
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Bohaiornithidae3
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: Sulcavis was named in 2013 by a team of scientists including Jingmai O'Connor. The fossil was found near Lamadong in Liaoning, China, and prepared by Maureen Walsh at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly what Sulcavis ate, but the strong grooved teeth suggest it could handle harder food than other early birds.1 2

Where the facts come from

Sulcavis (en.wikipedia.org)
A new enantiornithine from the Yixian Formation with the first recognized avian enamel specialization: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: Vol 33, No 1 (tandfonline.com)
Sulcavis in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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