Asteriornis

Asteriornis is an extinct genus of bird from the Upper Cretaceous of Belgium. It is known from a single species called Asteriornis maastrichtensis.^[1]

Asteriornis Temporal range: Late Maastrichtian 66.8–66.7 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Skull in lateral view
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Infraclass:	Neognathae
Clade:	Pangalloanserae
Genus:	†Asteriornis Field et al. 2020
Type species
†Asteriornis maastrichtensis Field et al. 2020

It was closely related to birds of the living superorder Galloanserae, such as chickens and ducks. Members of the genus were small, long-legged birds (~394 g).^[2]

They lived near the coastline with more "primitive" types of birds such as Ichthyornis. Asteriornis is one of the oldest-known birds: it definitely belongs to the group Neornithes, the modern birds.

It has features of both galliformes (chicken-like birds) and anseriformes (duck-like birds). This shows its position as a close relative of the last common ancestor for both groups.^[3]