Sapeornis

Sapeornis is a genus of primitive bird which lived during the Lower Cretaceous about 125120 million years ago (mya). Only one species is known: Sapeornis chaoyangensis. The fossils are from the Jiufotang Formation and Yixian Formation rocks in the People's Republic of China. Several nearly complete skeletons have been found.Zhou, Zhonghe & Zhang, Fucheng (2003): Anatomy of the primitive bird Sapeornis chaoyangensis from the Early Cretaceous of Liaoning, China. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 40(5): 731–747.  (HTML abstract)

Sapeornis is named after SAPE, the Society of Avian Paleontology and Evolution, added to the Ancient Greek όρνις (ornis), meaning "bird". chaoyangensis is Latin for "from Chaoyang".

This animal was about 30–33 cm long. The skull has a handful of teeth in the upper jawtip only. A single tail feather has been found on one of the specimens.Smith, Kerri 2012. China's dinosaur hunter: The ground breaker. BBC Nature.    It may have been a glider or soarer rather than an active flier.

 References 

Category:Cretaceous birds