A pair of rare bird fossils discovered in Queensland has revealed a previously unknown species that lived about 105 million years ago. The find marks only the second Cretaceous bird species formally named from Australia. The fossils add rare evidence to Australia’s Cretaceous bird record, which remains one of the continent’s least understood fossil records.
Researchers named the species Tenuicruris piscanexum. The fossils were found at separate sites near Richmond and described in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Fossil hunter spots unusual bones
Kevin Petersen, a former curator at Kronosaurus Korner, discovered the first bone while fossil hunting in a public collecting area near Richmond. He was searching a fossil-rich deposit known as the “fish mash layer,” which contains abundant fish remains and teeth from marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs.
Petersen noticed a long, light-brown bone that looked unusual and set it aside. About a week later, following rainfall, he found another unfamiliar bone on a rock slab. He photographed the specimens and sent the images to Dr. Matt White of the University of New England.
“I recognized them immediately as bird bones,” White said. “These specimens are especially significant because so few have been found in Australia, and none were directly comparable until now.” White identified one as a tarsometatarsus, formed from fused bones in a bird’s foot. The other was a tibiotarsus, a major lower-leg bone.
Scans reveal a new species
Because both fossils remained partly encased in hardened rock, researchers avoided fully removing the surrounding material. Dr. Joseph Bevitt scanned the specimens at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. White then used the data to create 3D models of the bones hidden inside the rock.
The scans allowed researchers to compare the new tibiotarsus with Nanantius eos, previously Australia’s only formally named Cretaceous bird. Scientists described Nanantius in 1986 from a tibiotarsus found in the same geological formation.
Clear anatomical differences supported the identification of a new species.
The name Tenuicruris means “slender leg,” referring to the bird’s lightly built limb. Piscanexum reflects the fish-rich layer where the fossils were discovered.
🚨NEW STUDY DROP🚨
Tibiotarsus of a Cretaceous Enantiornithine bird is described as Tenuiscruris. This is only the 2nd known bird from Cretaceous Australia.
🎨: Travis Tischler pic.twitter.com/y8kwPineda
— EDGE Science (@EDGE_Science_) September 28, 2026
A phylogenetic analysis placed the specimens within Enantiornithes, a diverse group of birds that flourished during the Mesozoic Era. Other fossils have shown that early birds were already undergoing major evolutionary changes tens of millions of years before Tenuicruris appeared.
A rare glimpse of Cretaceous Australia
Australia’s Cretaceous bird record remains extremely limited. Its oldest known avian remains date to about 128 to 120 million years ago, while fossil feathers and footprints provide additional evidence of ancient bird diversity.
Other discoveries have provided a much fuller picture of early avian evolution. A 150-million-year-old bird fossil discovered in China, for example, revealed that important features associated with modern birds had begun developing by the Late Jurassic. Tenuicruris raises the number of formally named Cretaceous bird species from Australia from one to two.
The fossils also expand the known wildlife of the roughly 105-million-year-old Toolebuc Formation. At the time, the Richmond region lay beside a vast inland sea inhabited by ichthyosaurs, pliosaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles, sharks and fish. Pterosaurs also lived in the region. Dr. Dean Lomax of the University of Bristol said the rare bones provide new information about the animals and environment around ancient Richmond.
The discovery also highlights the importance of Australia’s fossil record. Other recent research has used Australian fossils to fill gaps in the continent’s prehistoric wildlife, while many specimens at Kronosaurus Korner were first found by amateurs and visitors. Better recognition of small, fragile bird and pterosaur bones could lead to further discoveries in Australia’s sparse Cretaceous fossil record.
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