Rahonavis

What it was like

Rahonavis was a small feathered hunter about the size of a raven. It had long arms that were probably wings, and a large sickle claw on each foot, like Velociraptor.

Scientists still argue whether it was an early bird or a raptor-like dinosaur close to birds. It may have been able to fly.

Its world

It lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous, in what is now Madagascar. Its bones come from the Maevarano Formation, where it lived with the big hunter Majungasaurus, the small Masiakasaurus and the titanosaur Rapetosaurus.

How it was found

Forster and colleagues named Rahonavis in 1998. Only one partial skeleton is known.