Patagopteryx

Taxobox
name = "Patagopteryx"
status = fossil
fossil_range = fossil range|86|83Late Cretaceous (Santonian)
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Patagopterygiformes
familia = Patagopterygidae
genus = "Patagopteryx"
genus_authority = Alvarenga & J. Bonaparte, 1992
species = "P. deferrariisi"
binomial = "Patagopteryx deferrariisi"
binomial_authority = Alvarenga & Bonaparte, 1992

"Patagopteryx" is an extinct monotypic genus of birds that lived during the Late Cretaceous, around 80 mya, in what is now the Sierra Barrosa in northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. About the size of a chicken, it is the earliest known unequivocal example of secondary flightlessness: its skeleton shows clear indications that the ancestors of "Patagopteryx" were flying birds. See also Origin of Birds.

Located in strata of the Santonian Bajo de la Carpa Formation, the original remains were discovered by Oscar de Ferrariis, Director of the Natural History Museum of the Comahue National University in Neuquén around 1984-5. He passed them onto noted paleontologist José Bonaparte, who described the species "Patagopteryx deferrariisi" in 1992.

External links

* [http://www.prodiversitas.bioetica.org/images/prensa8.gifReconstruction] showing torso and limb skeletons
* [http://dino.lm.com/images/display.php?id=1839 Skeletal reconstruction] by Martin F. Chavez H.