''Cratoavis'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

enantiornithine The Enantiornithes, also known as enantiornithines or enantiornitheans in literature, are a group of extinct avialans ("birds" in the broad sense), the most abundant and diverse group known from the Mesozoic era. Almost all retained teeth and c ...

s. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

and only currently described species is ''C. cearensis'', from the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

Araripe Basin The Araripe Basin () is a rift basin covering about ,Neto et al., 2013, p.1 in Ceará, Piauí and Pernambuco states of northeastern Brazil. It is bounded by the Patos and Pernambuco lineaments, and is situated east of the Parnaíba Basin, south ...

Ceará Ceará (, ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It is the List of Brazilian states by population, eighth-largest Brazilian State by ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. The fossil, an articulated skeleton with feathers attached to the wings and surrounding the body, extends considerably the temporal record of the group at

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. The genus was named after the

Crato Formation The Crato Formation is a geologic formation (stratigraphy), formation of Early Cretaceous (Aptian) age in northeastern Brazil's Araripe Basin. It is an important Lagerstätten, Lagerstätte (undisturbed fossil accumulation) for palaeontology, pa ...

, in which the specimen was found. The holotype is associated with elements of at least two '' Dastilbe'' specimens, which were situated close to the region corresponding to the intestine and cecum. This indicates that these fish were probably contained within the digestive tract of ''Cratoavis'', which would make the holotype preserving a direct evidence of

piscivory A piscivore () is a carnivorous animal that primarily eats fish. Fish were the diet of early tetrapod evolution (via water-bound amphibians during the Devonian period); insectivory came next; then in time, the more terrestrially adapted repti ...

(fish-eating).

Phylogeny

''Cratoavis'' in the

cladogram A cladogram (from Greek language, Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an Phylogenetic tree, evolutionary tree because it does not s ...

from Wang ''et al''., 2022: Key to letters: ''b'' = '' Boluochia''
''c'' = ''

Cathayornis ''Cathayornis'' is a genus of enantiornithean birds from the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, People's Republic of China. It is known definitively from only one species, ''Cathayornis yandica'', one of the first Enantiornithes found in China. Se ...

''
''e'' = '' Enantiophoenix''
''f'' = '' Houornis''
''h'' = ''

Longipteryx ''Longipteryx'' is a genus of prehistoric bird which lived during the Early Cretaceous (Aptian stage, 120.3 million years ago). It contains a single species, ''Longipteryx chaoyangensis''. Its remains have been recovered from the Jiufotang Forma ...

''
''i'' = '' Parabohaiornis''
''j'' = '' Pterygornis''
''l'' = ''

Vorona ''Vorona berivotrensis'' ( ; Malagasy for "bird", ''berivotrensis'', "from Berivotra") is a monotypic genus of prehistoric birds. It was described from fossils found in a Maevarano Formation quarry near the village of Berivotra, Mahajanga Provi ...

''
''m'' = ''

Yuanjiawaornis ''Yuanjiawaornis'' is an extinct genus of large Enantiornithes, enantiornithean bird known from the early Cretaceous of present-day China. It is monotypic, with only type species ''Y. virisosus'' named.Dongyu Hu, Ying Liu, Jinhua Li, Xing Xu & Li ...

''
''n'' = '' Yungavolucris''

References

Enantiornithes Dinosaur genera Aptian dinosaurs Crato Formation Dinosaurs of Brazil Fossil taxa described in 2015 Taxa named by Fernando Novas {{Paleo-bird-stub