Sinocalliopteryx

Chinese beautiful feather

• Sino- · Late Latin/Greek · China, Chinese
• kalli- · Greek · beautiful
• pteryx · Greek · feather, wing

The name combines Greek roots for "China", "beautiful" and "feather/wing". It refers to the feathered, compsognathid-like theropod found in China, whose fossil preserves filamentous feather-like integument. The name echoes the earlier Chinese theropod Sinosauropteryx and Callipteryx-style naming for "beautiful feather".

Named by

Ji et al.

Year named

2007

Period

Early Cretaceous

Stage

Aptian

Found in

Yixian Formation, Liaoning, China

A large compsognathid theropod; the type species is S. gigas. A specimen preserves stomach contents including remains of a dromaeosaurid and a bird.