Neuquenornis volans was an enantiornithine bird which lived during the Late Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 in today's Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. It is presently the only known species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of the genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Neuquenornis. Its fossils were found in the Santonian

Santonian

The Santonian is an age in the geologic timescale or a chronostratigraphic stage. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series. It spans the time between 85.8 ± 0.7 mya and 83.5 ± 0.7 mya...

 Bajo de la Carpa Formation

Bajo de la Carpa Formation

The Bajo de la Carpa Formation is a geologic formation that outcrops in Patagonia, in the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, Argentina. It is the first of two formations belonging to the Río Colorado Subgroup within the Neuquén Group...

, dating from about 85-83 million years ago. This was a sizeable bird for its time, with a tarsometatarsus

Tarsometatarsus

The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is found in the lower leg of certain tetrapods, namely birds.It is formed from the fusion of several bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsal and metatarsal bones...

 46.8mm long. Informal estimates suggest that it measured nearly 30 cm (12 in) in length excluding the tailhttp://dml.cmnh.org/2001Jul/msg01069.html.

N. volans was described by Chiappe and Calvo in 1994. It was also mentioned in previous papers by Chiappe, but named only by its catalog number.

The holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 fossil is catalogued as MUCPv-142. It is in the collection of the Museo de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Buenos Aires, Neuquen, Argentina.

Chiappe and Calvo (1994) placed N. volans in the Family

Family

In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...

 Avisauridae

Avisauridae

The Avisauridae are a family of extinct Enantiornithine birds known from Cretaceous North and South America. They are represented by eight genera.Avisauridae was erected by Brett-Surman and Paul in 1985...

, near Avisaurus

Avisaurus

Avisaurus is a genus of enantiornithine bird from the Late Cretaceous of North America.Two species are known; the type species A. archibaldi and A. gloriae...

in the Enantiornithiformes. A more recent, unpublished, unreviewed, analysis that includes many newly-described Enantiornithes finds it closer to Concornis

Concornis

Concornis was an enantiornithine bird. It lived during the Early Cretaceous, in the late Barremian stage or about 127-125 million years ago, and its remains are known from the Calizas de La Huérguina Formation at Las Hoyas, Cuenca province, Spain...

and Cathayornis

Cathayornis

Cathayornis is a genus of enantiornithine bird from the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, People's Republic of China and, in the case of the possible species C...

(or Sinornis).

Etymology

Etymology

Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

: "Flying bird from Neuquén Province

Neuquén Province

Neuquén is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west...

". Neuquenornis, from Neuquén Province

Neuquén Province

Neuquén is a province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west...

 + Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 ornis (όρνις) "bird". volans, Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

for "flying" in reference to the species' well-developed wing skeleton.