Outline: a typical theropod
Zhongornis
"intermediate bird"
Type species Zhongornis haoae
- Lived
- 126 to 120 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Gao et al. 2008
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
125 million years ago
Field notes
About Zhongornis
What it was like
Zhongornis was a tiny feathered animal known from a skeleton of a young individual. It has a short tail and grasping hands. It was first described as a bird, but some scientists think it is closer to the scansoriopterygids, small tree-climbing dinosaurs.
Its world
It lived about 126 to 120 million years ago, in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now China. Its fossil comes from the Yixian Formation, a land of forests and lakes shared with the feathered Sinosauropteryx and the horned Psittacosaurus.
How it was found
Gao and colleagues named it in 2008. The type species is Zhongornis haoae.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Paraves
Sources: WikidataNamed in: C. Gao, L. M. Chiappe, and Q. Meng, J. K. O.'Connor, X. Wang, X. Cheng, J. Liu. 2008. A new basal lineage of Early Cretaceous birds from China and its implications on the evolution of the avian tail. Palaeontology 51(4):775-791