Genus

Valid Extinct

Zhengheornis

Wang et al. 2026

Zhengheornis is an extinct genus of basal avialan known from the Late Jurassic Nanyuan Formation of China.The genus contains a single species, Zhengheornis buyu, known from a partial skeleton with feather traces, preserved on a slab and counterslab.

Temporal range

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

Paleogene

Neogene

252 201 145 66 0 Ma

PBDB occurrences

Group

Dinosaures

Carnivore Ground dwelling, solitary Terrestrial

click to enlarge

Life reconstruction of Zhengheornis buyu. © Chung-Tat Cheung · Other

PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗

Classification

Dinosauria Unranked clade

›

Theropoda Unranked clade

›

Neotheropoda Unranked clade

›

Averostra Unranked clade

›

Tetanurae Unranked clade

›

Coelurosauria Unranked clade

›

Maniraptora Unranked clade

›

Avialae Unranked clade

›

Zhengheornis Genus

Fossil sites 1 geolocated sites

Distribution

Top countries

🇨🇳 China

Geological formations

Nanyuan

Temporal distribution

Tithonian (149.2–143.1 Ma)

Species (1)

Zhengheornis buyu 152 Ma

News 1

New Jurassic Fossil Reveals How Birds Lost Their Dinosaur Tails

China Jurassic fossil Dinosauria Zhengheornis +1

Paleontologists in China have described a small, previously unknown Jurassic bird whose short tail offers new evidence for how the earliest birds traded their long, dinosaur-like tails for the compact tailbone that helps living birds fly. The post New Jurassic Fossil Reveals How Birds Lost Their Dinosaur Tails appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

07/07/2026 sci-news

Images 1

Bibliography

Original description

M. Wang, J. Tang, and K. Deng, L. Dong, L. Xu, X. Xu, M. Lin, H. Du, G. Lin, R. Chen, C. Zhang, Z. Zhou. 2026. Jurassic avialan reveals stepwise evolution of bony tail in birds. Science Advances 12(27):eaeb5202:1-11 DOI ↗

Bibliography (1)

Zhengheornis

Signaler un problème