Kompsornis longicaudus

"elegant bird"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Kompsornis 5 m (16.4 ft) long
as long as 3 people standing fingertip to fingertip
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Early Cretaceous (120 Mya)
Place
China
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Jeholornithiformes

Kompsornis (meaning “elegant bird”) is an extinct genus of avialan dinosaurs that lived during the Early Cretaceous period of China. The type and only known species is Kompsornis longicaudus; the specific name means “long-tailed”. It is known from only a single fossil specimen from the Jiufotang Formation. Kompsornis was closely related to the well-known Jeholornis, another long-tailed avialan from China, but differs from it in features of its skeleton, particularly the fusion and growth rate of its bones. Like other jeholornithiforms, Kompsornis was a long-tailed avialan with long wings and possessed little or no teeth, with none identified in the single specimen of Kompsornis.

What we know

  • Named by Wang et al., 2020.
  • Fossils found in China.

What we guess

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