Janavis finalidens

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Janavis 5 m (16.4 ft) long
as long as 3 people standing fingertip to fingertip
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (66.8–66.7 Mya)
Place
Europe · United Kingdom · Belgium
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Ichthyornithes
Janavis reconstruction by Daniel J. Field, Juan Benito, Sarah Werning, Albert Chen, Pei-Chen Kuo, Abi Cran
Reconstruction · Daniel J. Field, Juan Benito, Sarah Werning, Albert Chen, Pei-Chen Kuo, Abi Cran (CC-BY)

Janavis (from the Roman god Janus and the Latin avis for bird) is an extinct toothed bird belonging to the Ichthyornithes from the Late Cretaceous of Belgium. The genus has one named species, Janavis finalidens (from Latin finalis, meaning ending or final, and dens, for tooth) that was discovered in the 1990s, reported in 2002, and described in 2022. Recovered almost simultaneously from the same area and age as Asteriornis maastrichtensis, then the oldest known modern bird, it provides information on the evolution and divergence of basal and modern birds, especially on the evolutionary modifications of bird skulls.

What we know

  • Named by Benito et al. 2022.
  • Fossils found in Europe and United Kingdom.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Janavis — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.