Aurornis xui ow-rɔːrnihs-SHOOEE

Aurornis is an extinct genus of anchiornithid theropod dinosaurs from the Jurassic Period of China. The genus Aurornis contains a single known species, Aurornis xui (). Aurornis xui may be the most basal (“primitive”) avialan dinosaur known to date, and it is one of the earliest avialans found to date. The fossil evidence for the animal pre-dates that of Archaeopteryx lithographica, often considered the earliest bird species, by about 10 million years.

Aurornis xui was first described and named by Pascal Godefroit, Andrea Cau, Hu Dong-Yu, François Escuillié, Wu Wenhao and Gareth Dyke in 2013. The generic name is derived from the Latin word aurora, meaning “daybreak” or “dawn”, and the Ancient Greek ὄρνις (órnis) meaning “bird”. The specific name, A. xui, honors Xu Xing.