Protoavis

first bird

• proto · Greek · first
• avis · Latin · bird

The name combines the Greek "protos" (first) with the Latin "avis" (bird). Sankar Chatterjee chose it because he interpreted the Texas fossils as the earliest known bird, living about 75 million years before Archaeopteryx. Most researchers doubt this, and think the material is a mix of bones from different animals.

Named by

Chatterjee

Year named

1991

Period

Late Triassic

Stage

Norian

Found in

Dockum Group (Cooper Canyon Formation), near Post, Texas, USA

Type species is Protoavis texensis. It was described as a Late Triassic bird, which would make it far older than Archaeopteryx. Many paleontologists think the fossils are a chimera of several animals, such as small theropods and other archosaurs, and that they are too fragmentary to support the claim. Its status as a bird, or even a dinosaur, is disputed and not widely accepted.