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Gettyia

Say it: JET-ee-uh
Name means: “named after Mike Getty, a fossil preparator”1
Ate: MeatEarly birdsLate Cretaceous

Gettyia was a small, bird-like dinosaur that lived about 75 million years ago. It had strong feet and sharp claws, and scientists think it was a fast hunter or a good climber.31

Lived
84 to 72 million years ago3
Late Cretaceous
Fossils found in
Glacier County, Montana, USA1
Length
0.291 m (1 ft)2
body length
Weight
0.343 kg (1 lb)2
body mass
Height
0.13 m (0.4 ft)
estimate
Top speed
about 28 km/h (17 mph)
Flying, estimate

When did it live?

Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

Gettyia about 0.291 m long (1 ft)A house cat about 0.5 m (1.6 ft)A dog about 1 m (3.3 ft)A bicycle about 1.8 m (5.9 ft)

How tall was it?

Gettyiaabout 0.13 m tall (0.4 ft)A house catabout 0.3 m (1 ft)A dogabout 0.5 m (1.6 ft)A horseabout 1.6 m (5.2 ft)

estimate

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 3 bananas
lighter than a house catas long as 9 toy building bricks in a rowsmall enough to walk under a chaircould fly across a whole football pitch in 14 seconds

How big was Gettyia compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Gettyia is known from just one foot bone, a tarsometatarsus, found in the Two Medicine Formation.1

2

This bird had a special knob on its foot bone for a muscle that flexes the ankle, which helped it grab things.1

3

Scientists think Gettyia might have been a bird of prey or a climbing bird, because its foot was built for strong gripping.1

4

Gettyia was originally named Avisaurus gloriae in 1995, but was given its own genus in 2018.1

5

The species name gloriae honors Gloria Siebrecht, a volunteer who found the fossil.1

6

Gettyia lived in a warm, swampy environment near the Western Interior Seaway, a huge inland sea.1

AI-madeAI-made picture of Gettyia
An AI-made picture of how Gettyia might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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Scientific name
Gettyia
Named by
Atterholt et al. 20183
Group
Early birds
Family / clade
Avisauridae3
Classification
Theropoda > Avialae3
Age of the rocks
84 to 72 million years (Campanian)3
Rock formations
Two Medicine3
Countries
USA3
Fossil records
1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery
The only known fossil of Gettyia was discovered by volunteer Gloria Siebrecht in Montana, USA. It was first named Avisaurus gloriae in 1995, and then renamed Gettyia in 2018.1
Still debated
Scientists are not sure exactly what Gettyia ate or how it moved, because only one foot bone has been found.1

Where the facts come from

  1. Gettyia (en.wikipedia.org)
  2. Gettyia – Encyklopedia Dinozaury.com (encyklopedia.dinozaury.com)
  3. Gettyia in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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More from the same group: Early birds

ArchaeopteryxEarly birdsHesperornisEarly birdsIchthyornisEarly birdsBaptornisEarly birdsJurapteryxEarly birdsGobipteryxEarly birds

Also from the same time: Late Cretaceous

TyrannosaurusTyrannosaursTriceratopsHorned dinosVelociraptorRaptorsSpinosaurusSpinosaursAnkylosaurusArmoured dinosParasaurolophusDuck-bills
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