Cathayornis

Cathay bird (Chinese bird)

• Cathay · Medieval Latin/English (old name for Chi · China
• ornis · Greek · bird

The name combines "Cathay", an old European name for China, with the Greek word for "bird". It refers to the fact that the fossils come from China and that the animal was an early bird.

Named by

Zhou, Jin and Zhang

Year named

1992

Period

Early Cretaceous

Stage

Aptian

Found in

Jiufotang Formation, Liaoning Province, China

Cathayornis is an enantiornithine ("opposite bird"), a group of early birds. Birds are avian dinosaurs, so it counts as a dinosaur in the broad sense. The type species is C. yandica. The assignment of some other species to the genus has been disputed.