Outline: a typical theropod
Protoavis
"first bird"
Type species Protoavis texensis
- Lived
- 227 to 206 million years ago, Late Triassic
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods
- Found in
- United States
- Named by
- Chatterjee 1991
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
220 million years ago
Field notes
About Protoavis
What it was like
Protoavis is one of the most argued-over fossils of all. When it was first described, it was called the earliest bird, millions of years older than any other known bird.
Most scientists now think the bones come from several different animals, mixed together, including small dinosaurs and other reptiles. It is not accepted as a bird.
Its world
The bones date from the Late Triassic and were found in what is now Texas. Its bones come from the Cooper Canyon Formation, which has also produced Coelophysis.
How it was found
Chatterjee named Protoavis in 1991. The fossils were poorly preserved and crushed, which is part of why they are so hard to interpret.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Theropoda
Sources: WikidataNamed in: S. Chatterjee. 1991. Cranial anatomy and relationships of a new Triassic bird from Texas. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 332:277-342