恐龍卡第 0820 張，共 2 027 張

Houornis

名字的意思： “Hou's bird, after the paleontologist Hou Lianhu”1

吃：肉早期鳥類白堊紀早期

Houornis was a tiny, toothy bird that lived in China about 120 million years ago. It had perching feet and a surprisingly long tail made of fused bones. This little bird was an enantiornithean, a group of early birds that went extinct with the dinosaurs.1

生存年代

121 到 113 百萬年前2

白堊紀早期

化石發現地

Liaoning Province, China, near the town of Boluochi1 2

最高速度

時速約 27 公里（17 英里）

飛行, 估計值

牠生活在什麼時候？

三疊紀

侏羅紀

白堊紀

2 億 5200 萬年前20114566，小行星撞地球

牠有多快？

走路的人 時速約 5 公里 (3 mph)

騎腳踏車的小朋友 時速約 12 公里 (7 mph)

Houornis 時速約 27 公里 (17 mph)

一匹飛奔的馬 時速約 65 公里 (40 mph)

一隻獵豹 時速約 100 公里 (62 mph)

酷東西

趣味知識

Houornis is known from only one main fossil, which is not preserved as bones but as impressions left in the rock.1

Its tail was originally thought to be long and bony like Archaeopteryx, but scientists later realized it had a long pygostyle, a fused tail bone.1

The upper arm bone of Houornis is less than 30 millimeters (1.2 inches) long, making it a very small bird.1

Houornis was once classified as a species of Cathayornis, but in 2015 it was given its own genus because of unique features like its large pygostyle.1

Some scientists have considered Houornis a doubtful species because the fossil is poorly preserved, but a 2015 study found it was distinct enough to keep.1

Houornis 的 AI 繪圖 — 這是電腦根據科學家目前的知識，用 AI 畫出 Houornis 可能的樣子。這只是猜測：真正的動物可能長得不一樣，也沒有人知道牠真正的顏色。

迷思破解王

迷思： Houornis had a long, bony tail like a dinosaur.

真相： Houornis actually had a short tail with a long pygostyle (fused tail vertebrae), not a long bony tail. The original mistake came from misidentifying hip bones as tail vertebrae.1

給恐龍專家

學名: Houornis
命名者: Wang and Liu 20152
類群: 早期鳥類
科 / 演化支: Enantiornithes2
分類: Theropoda > Avialae2
岩石的年代: 121 到 113 百萬年 (Aptian)2
岩層: Jiufotang2
國家: 中國2
化石紀錄: The Paleobiology Database 收錄 1 筆2
發現: The only known fossil of Houornis was found in 1993 by Zhou Zhonghe near Boluochi, China. It was first named Cathayornis caudatus by Hou Lianhu in 1997, and then renamed Houornis by Wang and Liu in 2015.1
仍有爭議: Scientists are not sure exactly how Houornis is related to other enantiornithean birds, because its fossil is too incomplete for a detailed family tree analysis.1