Confuciusornis Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,
C. sanctus fossil preserving long wing and tail feathers.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animal
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Family:	Confuciusornithidae
Type species
†Confuciusornis sanctus Hou et al., 1995
Species
†C. sanctus Hou et al., 1995 (type) †C. dui Hou et al., 1999
Synonyms
C. sanctus C. feducciai Zhang et al., 2009 C. jianchangensis Li et al., 2010 C. suniae Hou, 1997

C. sanctus fossil preserving long wing and tail feathers

Confuciusornis is a genus of primitive crow-sized birds from the Lower Cretaceous. It was found in the Yixian and Jiufotang Formations of China, dating from 125 to 120 million years ago. The bird was named after the Chinese moral philosopher Confucius (551–479 BC).

Like modern birds, Confuciusornis had a toothless beak, but close relatives of modern birds such as Hesperornis and Ichthyornis were toothed. This shows that the loss of teeth occurred more than once, in Confuciusornis and in ancestors of modern birds. This is an example of convergent evolution.