Plumadraco

Plumadraco (lit. 'feather dragon') is an enantiornithean bird in the family Bohaiornithidae, known from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian age) Jiufotang Formation of China. The genus contains a single species, Plumadraco bankoorum, known from a complete skeleton preserving soft tissues. Among the feathers preserved are a pair of elongated tail plumes.^[1]

The Plumadraco fossil material was discovered in outcrops of the Jiufotang Formation near Xiaotaizi Village in Jianchang County of Liaoning Province, China. The specimen is housed in the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature, where it is permanently accessioned as specimen STM11−4. The complete specimen is preserved in top view on a single slab, with all of the bones in their natural life positions. Feathers are visible around much of the animal, including the wings and tail.^[1]

In 2026, Alexander D. Clark and colleagues described Plumadraco bankoorum as a new genus and species of bohaiornithid enantiornithean based on these fossil remains, establishing STM11−4 as the holotype specimen. The generic name, Plumadraco, combines the Latin words pluma, meaning 'feather', and draco, meaning 'dragon'. The specific name, bankoorum, honors Winston E. and Paul C. Banko and their research on birds, especially in Hawaii, United States. The intended meaning of the full binomial name is 'Bankos' feather dragon'.^[1]

To test the affinities and relationships of Plumadraco, Clark et al. (2026) included it in an updated version of the phylogenetic matrix of Shen et al. (2024).^[2] They recovered it as the sister taxon to CUGB-P1202, a coeval unnamed immature bohaiornithid, in a clade also including Sulcavis. These results are displayed in the cladogram below:^[1]