Unenlagia | |
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Casts of U. paynemili fossils; today the claw is considered one of the hand unguals, not of the foot as shown here | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | Theropoda |
Family: | †Unenlagiidae |
Subfamily: | †Unenlagiinae |
Genus: | †Unenlagia Novas & Puerta, 1997 |
Species | |
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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.