page_title: Rahonavis
section_title: Paleobiology
hierarchical_section_title: Rahonavis / Paleobiology
caption_attribution_description: English: Rahonavis
context_page_description: Rahonavis is a genus of bird-like feathered dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous, 70–65 million years ago of what is now northwestern Madagascar.
  It is known from a partial skeleton found in a quarry. Rahonavis was a small predator, at about 70 centimetres long, with the typical Velociraptor-like raised sickle claw on the second toe.
context_section_description: Rahonavis was one-fifth larger than the closely related Archaeopteryx, about the size of a modern raven.
  Although numerous artists' reconstructions of Rahonavis show it in flight, it is not clear that it could fly. There is even been some doubt that the forearm material, which includes the quill knobs, belongs with the rest of the skeleton. Some researchers have suggested that Rahonavis represents a chimaera, with the forelimb of a bird mixed with the skeleton of a dromaeosaurid.
  The nearby discovery of the primitive bird Vorona berivotrensis shows that the possibility of a mix-up cannot be entirely excluded. However, many other scientists, including the original describers of Rahonavis, think its remains belong to a single animal. The wing bones are close to the rest of the skeleton. All the bones attributed to Rahonavis were buried in an area "smaller than a letter-sized page", according to co-describer Luis M. Chiappe in his 2007 book Glorified Dinosaurs. Chiappe maintained that Rahonavis could probably fly, noting that its ulna was large and robust compared to Archaeopteryx, and that this fact, coupled with the prominent quill knobs, suggest that Rahonavis had larger and more powerful wings than that earlier bird. In addition, Rahonavis shoulder bones show evidence of ligament attachments allowing the independent mobility needed for flapping flight. Chiappe concluded that Rahonavis was capable of flight, though it would have been more "clumsy in the air than modern birds".
caption: Life restoration
exif: {"Image XResolution": "96", "Image YResolution": "96", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "paint.net 4.1.1", "Image DateTime": "2018:10:02 15:10:31"}