Patagopteryx

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Patagopteryx Fossil range: Late Cretaceous
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Patagopterygiformes Family: Patagopterygidae Genus: Patagopteryx Alvarenga & Bonaparte (1992)
Species
P. deferrariisi

Patagopteryx is an extinct genus of birds that lived during the Late Cretaceous, around 80 mya, in what is now northwestern Patagonia. About the size of a chicken, it is the earliest true bird known to have become secondarily flightless.

Located in strata of the 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 Neuquėn around 1984-5, who passed them onto noted paleontologist José Bonaparte.