Neuquenornis volans

Neuquenornis volans is a species of enantiornithean birds which lived during the late Cretaceous period in today's Patagonia, Argentina. It is the only known species of the genus Neuquenornis. Its fossils were found in the Santonian Bajo de la Carpa Formation, dating from about 85-83 million years ago. This was a sizeable bird for its time, with a tarsometatarsus 46.8mm long. Informal estimates suggest that it measured nearly 30 cm (12 in) in length excluding the tail.

Neuquenornis volans

Alexander D. Clark, Jessie Atterholt, John B. Scannella, Nathan Carroll, Jingmai K. O’Connor · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikidata/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
NeuquenornisPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
Life habit
ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Theropoda

Time the record covers

At most 2.1 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 85.7 Mya and 83.6 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Late Cretaceous — about 2 of 2 occurrencesLate Cretaceous86–86 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86–86 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–85 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences85–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–84 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences84–84 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences86.2 Mya83.1 Mya

2 occurrences of Neuquenornis volans on record, most of them in the Late Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Bajo de la Carpa — 38.95°S, 68.23°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Neuquenornis volans has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Neuquenornis volans and its relatives

Late Cretaceous

Where Neuquenornis volans and its relatives were recorded in the Late Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

6 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Neuquenornis volans, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Neuquenornis volans

Credit
Alexander D. Clark, Jessie Atterholt, John B. Scannella, Nathan Carroll, Jingmai K. O’Connor
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Neuquenornis volans was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itNeuquenornis through timeFormations of the Late CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Chiappe and Calvo 1994