Liaoningornis
"bird of Liaoning"
- Length
- 5 m (16.4 ft)
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (124.6 Mya)
- Place
- Asia · China
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Dinosauria The clade containing all dinosaurs, terrestrial archosaurs with upright limbs.
Liaoningornis (meaning “bird of Liaoning” in Greek) is a genus of bird from Lower Cretaceous China. It was collected from the dinosaur-bearing beds of the Sihetun locality, of the Yixian Formation, Shangyuan, near the city of Beipiao in Liaoning province. The only known species is Liaoningornis longidigitris. It was described by Linhai Hou in 1996 and 1997. Longidigitris had been a lapsus calami; Hou emended the name in 1997 to Lioaningornis longidigitus.
The single fossil is an incomplete semi-articulated skeleton the size of a sparrow. It includes both feet, the right leg, the sternum, part of the right arm, and fragmentary coracoids and pubes. Its accession number is IVPP11303. It is in the collection of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.
What we know
- Named by (Hou, 1996) Hou, 1997.
- Fossils found in Asia and China.
What we guess
The reconstruction notes for Liaoningornis — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.