Protarchaeopteryx

first ancient wing (before Archaeopteryx)

• protos · Greek · first, before
• archaios · Greek · ancient
• pteryx · Greek · wing, feather

The name means "before Archaeopteryx". It was coined by Ji and Ji in 1997 because the animal was first thought to be a more primitive, earlier-branching feathered form than the Jurassic bird Archaeopteryx. In fact Protarchaeopteryx lived later than Archaeopteryx, and it is now regarded as a non-avian feathered theropod.

Named by

Ji and Ji

Year named

1997

Period

Early Cretaceous

Found in

Yixian Formation, Liaoning Province, China

Valid genus; the type species is Protarchaeopteryx robusta. It is a non-avian theropod, usually placed among the oviraptorosaurs (some analyses place it near the troodontids or in other maniraptoran positions). It is not a bird, and it is not older than Archaeopteryx despite the name. It had simple, symmetrical feathers, including tail feathers, but it could not fly.