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Yumenornis

Say it: yoo-MEN-ohr-niss

Name means: “Yumen bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsEarly Cretaceous

Yumenornis was an ancient bird that lived during the Age of Dinosaurs. It had feathers and could fly, but it also had teeth and claws like its dinosaur ancestors.2 1

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Gansu Province, China1

Food

Meat2

Weight

0.142 kg to 0.143 kg1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Yumenornis lived about 121 to 113 million years ago, during the early Cretaceous period.2

The only known fossil of Yumenornis includes a partial breastbone, shoulder bones, and a complete right wing.1

Yumenornis was a relative of Gansus, another ancient bird from the same area in China.1

Scientists think Yumenornis was larger than its relative Gansus, based on its thicker upper arm bone.1

Yumenornis had a sharp, pointy breastbone shaped like a 90-degree angle, unlike the wider breastbone of Gansus.1

The tip of the Yumenornis wing was longer than its upper arm, giving it a long hand section.1

AI-made picture of Yumenornis — An AI-made picture of how Yumenornis 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: Yumenornis
Named by: Wang et al. 20133
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Ornithuromorpha3
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)3
Rock formations: Xiagou3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Yumenornis was named by Wang and colleagues in 2013 based on a fossil found in the Changma Basin of Gansu Province, China. The name honors Yumen City near the discovery site and Mr. Zhao-Chu Huang.1
Still debated: Because the only fossil lacks the legs and feet, scientists are not sure whether Yumenornis lived in trees, on the ground, or near water.1

Where the facts come from

Previously Unrecognized Ornithuromorph Bird Diversity in the Early Cretaceous Changma Basin, Gansu Province, Northwestern China | PLOS One (journals.plos.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Yumenornis 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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