Outline: a typical theropod
Sinocalliopteryx
"Chinese beautiful feather"
- Lived
- 126 to 120 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Length
- about 2.4 m (8 ft)
- Group
- Theropods, Compsognathidae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Ji et al. 2007
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical theropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
125 million years ago
Field notes
About Sinocalliopteryx
What it was like
Sinocalliopteryx was a feathered hunter about 2.4 meters (8 feet) long, one of the largest compsognathids. Its skeleton preserves simple, hair-like feathers over much of the body.
Its stomach contents show what it ate: one specimen holds the leg of a small dromaeosaur, another the remains of early birds. It was clearly an active, skilled predator.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now China. It comes from the Yixian Formation, a land of lakes and forests shared with the feathered tyrannosaur Yutyrannus, the smaller Sinosauropteryx and Sinornithosaurus, and the plant eater Psittacosaurus.
How it was found
Ji and colleagues named Sinocalliopteryx in 2007.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Compsognathidae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: S. Ji, Q. Ji, and J. Lü, C. Yuan. 2007. A new giant compsognathid dinosaur with long filamentous integuments from Lower Cretaceous of northeastern China. Acta Geologica Sinica 81(1):8-15