Cerebavis fossil map
Where fossils of Cerebavis have been found, shown on the Earth as it looked about 100 million years ago and on today’s map.
Dots are fossil collections recorded in the Paleobiology Database. The “then” view moves today’s fossil sites back to their positions 100 million years ago (the time slice nearest the median age of the fossils) using the Merdith et al. (2021) plate model; positions are approximate. Open on the timeline map →
| Group | Theropods |
|---|---|
| Lived | 100.5–93.9 million years ago (Cenomanian) |
| Periods | Cretaceous |
| Named by | Kurochkin and Saveliev 2006 |
| Fossil records | 1 occurrences at 1 locations (PBDB) |
| Found in | Russia |
| Rock formations | Melovatka |
About Cerebavis
Cerebavis (from Latin cerebrum, "brain", and avis, "bird") is an extinct genus of ornithuran dinosaurs that lived during the middle Cenomanian of the Late Cretaceous period, and is known from a single partial skull (PIN 5028/2) found in the Melovatskaya Formation of Volgograd Region in Russia. The skull was initially described as the fossilised brain of an enantiornithean by Russian palaeornithologist Evgeny Kurochkin and colleagues in 2006. Kurochkin and colleagues described Cerebavis as having a notable mixture of ancestral traits, such as a well-developed olfactory system, with derived traits of modern birds like a large cerebrum. At the same time, they identified various unusual and unique features not seen in the brains of reptiles or birds. These include well-developed auditory tubercles on the midbrain, as well as a prominent parietal organ compared to living birds or Archaeopteryx between them.
Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Cerebavis (revision 1379907028), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; introduction excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Ages, family, authority and fossil records: Paleobiology Database, accessed 23 October 2026. Ages are those of the rock layers the fossils were found in. Wikidata: Q16858744.
