Sazavis

Sazavis is known from only a single piece of lower leg bone, called a tibiotarsus, which is just 4.5 mm wide at the joint.1

It lived about 93 to 89 million years ago, during the Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous.2

Scientists think Sazavis may have been related to another bird called Nanantius.1

The name Sazavis comes from the Kazakh word for 'clay' and the Latin word for 'bird', because it was found in a clay depression.1

Sazavis probably lived in coastal forests or riverbank woodlands full of Platanaceae (sycamore-like) flowering plants.1

It was an enantiornithine bird, a group of toothed, primitive birds that were common in the Cretaceous.1