Zhongornis

Say it: ZHONG-or-niss

Name means: “intermediate bird”1

Ate: MeatOther meat-eatersEarly Cretaceous

Zhongornis was a tiny, feathered dinosaur that lived about 125 million years ago in what is now China. It had a beak with no teeth and a short tail, making it look a bit like a bird. It is special because it helps show how some dinosaurs evolved into birds.1 2

Lived

126 to 120 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Liaoning Province, China1 2

Food

Meat2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Zhongornis had a beak with no teeth, unlike many other early birds.1

Its tail had only 13 vertebrae, much fewer than the 22 in Archaeopteryx, a more primitive bird-like dinosaur.1

The third finger of Zhongornis had only two bones, which is more like advanced birds than like earlier dinosaurs.1

Zhongornis is the only fossil found that seems to be intermediate between long-tailed birds like Archaeopteryx and short-tailed birds like Confuciusornis.1

The only known specimen was a juvenile, but it had already grown feathers on its hand and tail.1

AI-made picture of Zhongornis — An AI-made picture of how Zhongornis 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.

you asked

Most asked questions about Zhongornis

?How big was Zhongornis?

It was tiny, about 8 centimeters long (roughly 3 inches).1

?Did Zhongornis have feathers?

Yes, it had feathers on its hand and tail, as shown by impressions on the fossil.1

?What did Zhongornis eat?

It was a meat-eating dinosaur, but its beak had no teeth, so it probably ate small prey or insects.1

?Is Zhongornis a bird?

Scientists disagree. Some say it is a primitive bird, while others think it is a close relative of the Scansoriopterygidae, a group of non-bird dinosaurs.1 3

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Myth buster

Myth: Zhongornis was a true bird.

Truth: Zhongornis was a dinosaur, not a bird. It is a primitive member of the group that includes birds, but it is not a bird itself.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Zhongornis
Named by: Gao et al. 20084
Group: Other meat-eaters
Family / clade: Paraves4
Classification: Theropoda4
Age of the rocks: 126 to 120 million years (Barremian / Aptian)4
Rock formations: Yixian4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Zhongornis was named by Gao et al. in 2008. The only specimen was donated to the Dalian Natural History Museum in China by a woman named Ms. Hao, and the species is named after her.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Zhongornis is more closely related to birds with short tails or to those with long tails, because it has features of both.1

Where the facts come from

Zhongornis (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Reinterpretation of the Early Cretaceous maniraptoran (Dinosauria: Theropoda) Zhongornis haoae as a scansoriopterygid-like non-avian, and morphological resemblances between scansoriopterygids and basal oviraptorosaurs (ivpp.ac.cn)
Zhongornis in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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