🐦 BirdsCretaceousWell known
Confuciusornis
Confuciusornis sanctus
Because so many specimens exist, researchers can study growth, variation and plumage in Confuciusornis as in few other fossil birds.
Image: Tommy from Arad · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Confuciusornis sanctus
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (Aptian)
- Lived
- 125–120 Ma (125 million years ago)
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Habitat
- Forest, Freshwater
- Length (estimate)
- 0.5 m
- Discovered/described
- 1995 · Hou Lianhai and colleagues (description)
Description
Confuciusornis was a crow-sized early bird with a toothless beak but still with claws on its wings. Thousands of specimens have been found, often with feathers; many had two long ornamental tail feathers. Its name honours the Chinese philosopher Confucius.
Habitat
Forests and lakes in a volcanic landscape in north-eastern China.
Fossil sites
Sihetun, Liaoning
Yixian Formation
Cultural profile: China →
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Confuciusornis