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Enantiophoenix

Say it: en-AN-tee-oh-FEE-nix
Name means: “opposite phoenix”1
Ate: A bit of everythingEarly birdsLate Cretaceous

Enantiophoenix was a tiny bird that lived during the time of dinosaurs. It had a special beak and may have loved to eat sweet tree sap, just like some birds today!1

Lived
100 to 94 million years ago3
Late Cretaceous
Fossils found in
Lebanon, at the Nammoura locality in the Sannine Formation31
Food
A bit of everything1
Length
0.2 m2
similar in size to a modern starling, around 20 cm long
Top speed
about 24 km/h (15 mph)
Flying, estimate

When did it live?

Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

Enantiophoenix about 0.2 m longA house cat about 0.5 mA dog about 1 mA bicycle about 1.8 m

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Fun facts

1

Enantiophoenix lived about 95 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period.1

2

It is a type of enantiornithean bird, which means 'opposite birds' because some of their bones are arranged differently from modern birds.1

3

Lumps of amber found with the fossil suggest Enantiophoenix may have fed on tree sap, a rare diet for a Mesozoic bird.1

4

Its full scientific name is Enantiophoenix electrophyla, and 'electrophyla' means 'lover of amber'.1

5

Enantiophoenix is known from only a few fossil bones, so scientists are still learning about its size and appearance.3

AI-madeAI-made picture of Enantiophoenix
An AI-made picture of how Enantiophoenix might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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Scientific name
Enantiophoenix
Named by
Cau and Arduini 20083
Group
Early birds
Family / clade
Avisauridae3
Classification
Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks
100 to 94 million years (Cenomanian)3
Countries
Lebanon3
Fossil records
1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery
Enantiophoenix was named in 2008 by paleontologists Andrea Cau and Paolo Arduini, based on fossils from Lebanon.31
Still debated
Scientists are not sure if Enantiophoenix ate only tree sap or also other foods, because its teeth and beak are not well preserved.1

Where the facts come from

  1. Enantiophoenix (en.wikipedia.org)
  2. Enantiophoenix – Nix Illustration (nixillustration.com)
  3. Enantiophoenix in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@dinowiki.app and we will fix it.

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Also from the same time: Late Cretaceous

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