Shanweiniao cooperorum Shanweiniao
"Etymology TBD"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Shanweiniao 5 m (16.4 ft) long
3 people holding hands
- Length
- 5 m (16.4 ft)
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (122 Mya)
- Place
- China
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Longipterygidae
Shanweiniao is a genus of long-snouted enantiornithean birds from Early Cretaceous China. One species is known, Shanweiniao cooperorum. There is one known fossil, a slab and counterslab. The fossil is in the collection of the Dalian Natural History Museum, and has accession number DNHM D1878/1 and DNHM1878/2. It was collected from the Lower Cretaceous Dawangzhengzi Beds, middle Yixian Formation, from Lingyuan in the Liaoning Province, China.
O’Connor et al. (2010) found that Shanweiniao is a close relative of Longipteryx, Longirostravis, and Rapaxavis, which together form a clade of long-beaked enantiornithean birds, the Longipterygidae.
What we know
- Named by O'Connor et al., 2009.
- Fossils found in China.