Limenavis

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Limenavis
Fossil range: Late Cretaceous (Campanian/Maastrichtian)

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Subclass:	Ornithurae
(unranked)	Carinatae
(unranked)	Neornithes?
Genus:	Limenavis Clarke & Chiappe, 2001
Species:	L. patagonica

Binomial name

Limenavis patagonica
Clarke & Chiappe, 2001

Limenavis is a prehistoric bird genus from the Late Cretaceous. It lived about 70 million years ago, around the Campanian-Maastrichtian boundary^{[verification needed]}. Known from several broken bones, the remains of the only known species Limenavis patagonica were found in rocks of the Allen Formation at Salitral Moreno, 20 km south of General Roca, Río Negro (Argentina).

It is quite certainly a carinate, a member of the clade containing living birds and a few very closely related extinct Mesozoic taxa such as Ichthyornis. It was even proposed to have been a paleognath, perhaps related to the ancestors of tinamous or rheas. Though such birds must have existed by that time already, and most likely at least tinamou ancestors (basal Tinamiformes) did live in South America by the Late Cretaceous^[1], it is not too likely that L. patagonica is indeed a member of the Neornithes.^[2]

However, of all the prehistoric birds known to date, this species is certainly among those closest to the common ancestor of all living birds. Its generic name pays tribute to this fact: Limenavis, meaning "bird of the threshold" or "limit-bird", is derived from Latin limen ("threshold") + avis ("bird"). The specific name patagonica refers to the specimen's Patagonian provenance.