Dino card No. 1137 of 2,015

Martinavis

Say it: mar-tin-AY-vis

Name means: “Martin's bird”1

Ate: MeatEarly birdsLate Cretaceous

Martinavis was a prehistoric bird that lived alongside the last dinosaurs. It was about the size of a crow or a small seagull and could fly. It lived in what is now France, Argentina, and maybe North America.1

Lived

84 to 66 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

France (Languedoc-Roussillon) and Argentina (Salta Province)1 2

Food

Meat2

Length

0.427 to 0.51 m1

estimated from humerus length

Weight

1.1 kg to 1.8 kg1

Height

0.187 to 0.223 m1

at the hips

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Martinavis is known from only a few arm bones, mostly humeri. Scientists have named five different species based on these bones.1

The largest species, Martinavis vincei, was about 51 cm long and weighed around 1.8 kg. That is as heavy as a big chicken.1

Martinavis belonged to a group of ancient birds called enantiornithines. These birds had teeth and claws on their wings.1

Fossils of Martinavis have been found in France and Argentina. This shows that these birds lived in both Europe and South America during the Late Cretaceous.1

The type species, Martinavis cruzyensis, was named after the village of Cruzy in France where its fossil was found.1

Martinavis lived about 75 to 70 million years ago, during the Campanian and Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous.1

AI-made picture of Martinavis — An AI-made picture of how Martinavis 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.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Martinavis
Named by: Walker et al. 20073
Group: Early birds
Family / clade: Euenantiornithes3
Classification: Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 66 million years (Campanian to Maastrichtian)3
Rock formations: Lecho, Grès à Reptiles3
Countries: Argentina, France3
Fossil records: 6 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Martinavis was named in 2007 by Cyril A. Walker, Eric Buffetaut, and Gareth J. Dyke. The first fossils were found in France and Argentina.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if some Martinavis bones actually belong to other enantiornithine birds from the same fossil sites, like Yungavolucris or Soroavisaurus.1

Where the facts come from

Martinavis (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Martinavis 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.