Aurornis

dawn bird

• aurora · Latin · dawn
• ornis · Greek · bird

Aurornis combines the Latin word for "dawn" with the Greek word for "bird". It was chosen because the fossil came from the Late Jurassic and was described as one of the earliest known birds, or close to the base of bird evolution. The type species is Aurornis xui.

Named by

Godefroit et al.

Year named

2013

Period

Late Jurassic

Stage

Oxfordian

Found in

Tiaojishan Formation, Liaoning Province, China

A small, feathered paravian theropod. It was originally described as the most basal known avialan (bird). Later analyses have disagreed on this and sometimes place it among troodontids or other early paravians. Its exact position is still debated.