Dino card No. 1801 of 2,027

Tianyuornis

Say it: tee-AN-yoo-OR-nis

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Tianyuornis was a small, feathered bird that lived about 125 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs. It had long legs and probably ran around on the ground, using its wings for balance or short flights.1 3

Lived

126 to 121 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Fossils were found in the Yixian Formation in Inner Mongolia, China.1 3

Top speed

about 27 km/h (17 mph)

Flying, estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How fast was it?

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

A kid on a bike about 12 km/h (7 mph)

Tianyuornis about 27 km/h (17 mph)

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

A cheetah about 100 km/h (62 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

Tianyuornis had teeth in both its upper and lower jaws, which is unusual for birds and helped scientists confirm that some ancient birds still had teeth.1 2

Its lower jaw (dentary) was straight, while other similar birds had a curved, S-shaped jaw. This unique feature helped scientists identify it as a new species.1 2

Tianyuornis was about the size of a modern phoebe, a small songbird, making it quite tiny compared to many dinosaurs.1

It had long hindlimbs (legs) compared to its forelimbs (wings), which suggests it was a good runner.1 2

The only known fossil is a nearly complete and articulated skeleton of a subadult, meaning it was not fully grown when it died.1 2

Tianyuornis lived in a lake environment, and its fossils were found in lake deposits.1

AI-made picture of Tianyuornis — An AI-made picture of how Tianyuornis 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: Tianyuornis
Named by: Zheng et al. 20143
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Hongshanornithidae3
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks: 126 to 121 million years (Barremian)3
Rock formations: Yixian3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Tianyuornis was named by Zheng Xiaoting and colleagues in 2014, based on a nearly complete skeleton found in the Yixian Formation in Inner Mongolia, China.1 3
Still debated: Scientists debate whether all members of the Hongshanornithidae family, which includes Tianyuornis, had teeth, but this new fossil helps confirm that they did.2

Where the facts come from

Tianyuornis (en.wikipedia.org)
New Information on Hongshanornithidae (Aves: Ornithuromorpha) from a new subadult specimen (vertpala.ac.cn)
Tianyuornis 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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