Zhongornis
species of reptile (fossil)
Zhongornis (meaning "intermediate bird") is a genus of primitive maniraptoran dinosaurs that lived during the Early Cretaceous. It was found in rocks of the Yixian Formation in Lingyuan City (China), and described by Gao et al. in 2008.
Zhongornis has only one described species, Zhongornis haoae. The only specimen is a fossil slab and counterslab numbered D2455/6. It is in the collection of the Dalian Natural History Museum. It is a fairly complete skeleton about eight centimeters in length. Pores in the bones and unfused sutures in the skeleton indicate that the specimen was a juvenile, but the authors believe that it was developed enough to erect a new taxon on the basis of its unique morphological characters. There are feather impressions preserved on the right hand and also probable tail feathers preserved near the left foot. Zhongornis had a beaked mouth with no teeth.
The public source identifies “Zhongornis” as species of reptile (fossil). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Zhongornis, species and reptile.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 15, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q2577325. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zhongornis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.