Eoenantiornis

dawn opposite bird

• eos (eo-) · Greek · dawn
• enantios · Greek · opposite
• ornis · Greek · bird

The name combines the Greek "eos" (dawn) with Enantiornis, an earlier-named genus of fossil bird whose name means "opposite bird". It marks Eoenantiornis as an early, "dawn" member of the enantiornithines, the "opposite birds". That group was named for a detail of shoulder-bone anatomy, which is reversed compared with modern birds.

Named by

Hou et al.

Year named

1999

Period

Early Cretaceous

Found in

Yixian Formation, Liaoning Province, China

Eoenantiornis is an early enantiornithine bird, a group of primitive birds. Birds are avian dinosaurs, so it counts as a dinosaur in the modern sense. The type species is E. buhleri. The Yixian Formation is roughly 125 million years old, but I have left the exact stages blank because I am not certain of them.