Unenlagia

genus of reptiles (fossil)

Unenlagia was a theropod from the mid-Cretaceous, living about 90 million years ago. The first birds appeared 150 million years ago, evolving from dinosaurs long before Unenlagia lived. Therefore, it is not an ancestor of modern-day birds, but was an evolutionary dead-end. The most bird-like dinosaur ever discovered is the 90-million-year-old Unenlagia comahuensis, a flightless, 4-foot tall, 7.5-foot-long carnivore.

Unenlagia
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
~89 Ma
Casts of U. paynemili fossils; today the claw is considered one of the hand unguals, not of the foot as shown here
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Theropoda
Family: Unenlagiidae
Subfamily: Unenlagiinae
Genus: Unenlagia
Novas & Puerta, 1997
Species
  • U. comahuensis Novas & Puerta, 1997 (type)
  • U. paynemili Calvo, Porfiri & Kellner, 2004