Castignovolucris

Castignovolucris (meaning "Castigno valley bird") is an extinct genus of enantornithe bird from the Late Cretaceous "continental red clays" of the Argiles et Grès à Reptiles Formation of France. It contains a single species, C. sebei, which was named and described in 2023.^[1]

Castignovolucris Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, ~74–72 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Holotype coracoid of C. sebei at the Musée de Cruzy
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	Theropoda
Clade:	Avialae
Clade:	†Enantiornithes
Genus:	†Castignovolucris Buffetaut et al., 2023
Species:	†C. sebei
Binomial name
†Castignovolucris sebei Buffetaut et al., 2023

Discovery and naming

The holotype, MC-VCZ2-6, a right coracoid, was discovered sometime around the 1990s^[1] near Villespassans by Stéphane Sèbe and was donated to the Musée de Cruzy.

Castignovolucris sebei was named and described by Buffetaut et al. (2023).^[1]

Description

Castignovolucris was estimated to have a wingspan of around 127–185 cm (50–73 in) and may have been 75 to 110 cm (29.5 to 43.5 in) long when fully grown,^[1] making it one of the largest known enantiornitheans to date.

Paleobiology

Castignovolucris would have been found on the Ibero-Armorican island in what is today Occitania, France.^[2]