Elektorornis chenguangi Elektorornis

"amber bird"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Elektorornis 5 m (16.4 ft) long
3 people holding hands
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (99 Mya)
Place
Unknown locality
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Dinosauria

Elektorornis (“amber bird”) is an extinct genus of enantiornithean bird from the Late Cretaceous of Myanmar. The genus contains a single species, Elektorornis chenguangi, known from a partial hindlimb and a small amount of wing plumage preserved in amber. In life, it would have been slightly smaller than a sparrow and possibly used its characteristically elongated middle toe to probe for food. Elektorornis chenguangi is the first bird species described from remains found in Burmese amber, although other undiagnostic enantiornithean specimens have previously been found.

Alexander D. Clark and Jingmai O’Connor (2021) observed that extant animals with similar probing structures consistently have additional anatomical traits that allow the animal to penetrate a hard substrate, such as wood.

What we know

  • Named by Xing et al., 2019.