Yungavolucris

Yungavolucris is a genus of enantiornitheans. It contains the single species Yungavolucris brevipedalis, which lived in the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian, c.70.6 – 66 mya). The fossil bones were found in the Lecho Formation at estancia El Brete, Argentina."Yungavolucris brevipedalis" means "Short-footed Yungas bird". The generic name, Yungavolucris is after the Yungas region + the Latin volucris, which translates to "bird" (literally "flyer"). The specific name brevipedalis is from the Latin brevis, which means "short", + pedalis, from the Latin pes, meaning "foot".

== Description == The only remains of Yungavolucris discovered so far consist of several tarsometatarsals, of which only the holotype (PVL-4053) is nearly complete. These tarsometatarsals are unusually very stout and flat, and also very wide at the lower end. These specimens are small, just over 4 cm (1.5 inches) long, and if its legs and feet were not excessively shortened in relation to the body, the bird was about the size of a large blackbird in life. The width of the bone is considerable though, being about twice the width of the tarsometatarsals of Lectavis and Soroavisaurus, two of its contemporaries. Thus, if the leg and foot only shortened and did not also become wider, it might be expected to have been a heavily built, sluggish and maybe even flightless bird the size of a large chicken: a length of 50 cm (20 in), hip height of 25 cm (10 in), and weight of 1.75 kg (4 lb).