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Yixianornis

Say it: YEE-shee-AN-or-niss

Name means: “Yixian Formation bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Yixianornis was a bird that lived 120 million years ago in what is now China. It was about the size of a chicken and had broad, rounded wings that helped it fly through dense forests. Its tail feathers could fan out like a modern bird's tail.1

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago2

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Qianyang, Yixian County, Liaoning Province, China1 2

Food

Meat1 2

Length

0.19 to 0.2 m1

excluding feathers

Wingspan

0.4 m1

Weight

0.2 kg to 0.35 kg1

Height

0.115 m1

at the hips

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

lighter than a house cat

How big was Yixianornis compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Yixianornis is one of the best-preserved bird fossils from the Jehol group, with bones that are mostly uncrushed and clear impressions of wing and tail feathers.1

Its tail feathers were arranged in a graduated series, with the outer feathers anchored closer to the base of the tail, giving it a rounded silhouette.1

Yixianornis had a rectrical bulb, a muscle that allows tail feathers to be fanned out during flight and retracted when at rest, just like in modern birds.1

The tips of its jaws were toothless and had small pits and grooves, possibly indicating the presence of a beak.1

Its flight feathers were very broad and rounded, not narrow and pointed like in many other early birds.1

Scientists think Yixianornis was diurnal, meaning it was active during the day, similar to most modern birds.1

Yixianornis is the most primitive bird known to have an essentially modern pygostyle and fan of tail feathers.1

AI-made picture of Yixianornis — An AI-made picture of how Yixianornis 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: Yixianornis
Named by: Zhou and Zhang 20012
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Hongshanornithidae2
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae2
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)2
Rock formations: Jiufotang2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Yixianornis was named by Zhou Zhonghe and Zhang Fucheng in 2001 based on a nearly complete fossil with feather impressions found in the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, China.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Yixianornis had a beak at the tips of its jaws, because the pits and grooves could also be from other features.1

Where the facts come from

Yixianornis (en.wikipedia.org)
Yixianornis 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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