Dinosaurs A to Z
Troodontidae

Jinfengopteryx elegans

"feather"

Generic raptor body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Jinfengopteryx 5 m (16.4 ft) long
as long as 3 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic raptor body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Jinfengopteryx
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Early Cretaceous (122 Mya)
Place
China
Food
Carnivore
Clade
Troodontidae Dinosauria Saurischia Theropoda Coelurosauria Small, brainy, feathered theropods.
Jinfengopteryx reconstruction by Matt Martyniuk (Dinoguy2)
Reconstruction · Matt Martyniuk (Dinoguy2) (CC-BY)

Jinfengopteryx (from Jinfeng, ‘golden phoenix’, the queen of birds in Chinese folklore, and pteryx, meaning ‘feather’) is a genus of maniraptoran dinosaur. It was found in the Qiaotou Member of the Huajiying Formation of Hebei Province, China, and is therefore of uncertain age. The Qiaotou Member may correlate with the more well-known Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation, and so probably dates to around 122 Ma (122 million years) ago.

What we know

  • Named by Ji et al., 2005.
  • Fossils found in China.

What we guess

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