''Musivavis'' (meaning "mosaic bird") is a genus of euenantiornithine bird from the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

(

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

) Jiufotang Formation of

Liaoning Province Liaoning () is a coastal provinces of China, province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and i ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The genus contains a single species, ''Musivavis amabilis'', known from a nearly complete, articulated skeleton.

Discovery and naming

The ''Musivavis''

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

specimen, MHGU-3000, was discovered in a layer of the Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang, Liaoning Province, China. This specimen consists of a nearly complete specimen, preserved on a single slab. In 2022, Wang ''et al''. described ''Musivavis amabilis'', a new genus and species of enantiornthine, based on these fossil remains. The generic name, "''Musivavis''", combines the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

"musivum", meaning "

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

", and "avis", meaning "bird". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, "''amabilis''", is a Latin word meaning "lovely" or "beautiful", in reference to the preservation quality of the holotype.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q111199557 Enantiornitheans Prehistoric bird genera Extinct birds of Asia Mesozoic birds of Asia Fossil taxa described in 2022 Birds described in 2022