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Description
Asteriornis maastrichtensis is a species of pangalloanseran bird in the Maastricht Formation of Belgium, having lived 66 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period, just before the menacing asteroid impact that ended the Mesozoic era. It is estimated to have measured 30 cm in length, and it was a small ground-dwelling bird wandering around in the forest floor, pecking for plant life or animal life in the ground, possibly even digging burrows underground for shelter, living under the shadows of bigger non-avian dinosaurs. This has been classified as a pangalloanseran, close in shape to what is believed the common ancestor of modern fowl looked like. This is the most complete undisputed neornithean bird from the Mesozoic, and the only properly described non-galloanseran pangalloanseran.

Described by Field et al. in 2020

Description
Asteriornis maastrichtensis is a species of pangalloanseran bird in the Maastricht Formation of Belgium, having lived 66 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period, just before the menacing asteroid impact that ended the Mesozoic era. It is estimated to have measured 30 cm in length, and it was a small ground-dwelling bird wandering around in the forest floor, pecking for plant life or animal life in the ground, possibly even digging burrows underground for shelter, living under the shadows of bigger non-avian dinosaurs. This has been classified as a pangalloanseran, close in shape to what is believed the common ancestor of modern fowl looked like. This is the most complete undisputed neornithean bird from the Mesozoic, and the only properly described non-galloanseran pangalloanseran.

Described by Field et al. in 2020