• ✓Bird posture, perched or standing, wings half-open so the wing edge and clawed fingers show clearly; not a raptor-like pose
• ✓Long, slender, pointed snout over half the skull length, a few small teeth clearly visible at the tip; not a toothless shorebird bill
• ✕A primitive Mesozoic bird, not a look-alike of any modern bird (sparrow, sandpiper, kingfisher, pigeon)Body and neck still look like a modern wader, though the teeth and wing claws show
• ✓Two small clawed fingers clearly visible at the front edge of each wing near the wrist
• ✓Short tail ending in a pygostyle, short tail feathers, no modern-bird tail fan
• ✓Perching feet, first toe reversed, curved claws
• ✓Fully feathered, wings with long asymmetric flight feathers
• ✓Whole animal visible in side view
• ✓Scene matches the period and the fossil site
• ✓No text, people or modern objects

Checked by Claude (AI) on Nov 3, 2026. The score is the share of checklist items the image gets right; it is not an expert scientific review.

Prompt used to create the image

Scientifically accurate paleoart of Longipteryx, a Mesozoic bird (Enantiornithes, Longipterygidae), a bird-line dinosaur from Aptian times (121.4–113.2 million years ago). A natural bird posture, perched on a branch or standing on the ground with the legs under the body and the wings held half-open and slightly lowered, so the front edge of each wing and its clawed fingers are clearly visible, NOT a raptor-like dinosaur pose with grasping hands held out in front. A long, slender, pointed snout, more than half the length of the skull, with a few small but clearly visible teeth at its very tip, the beak slightly open to show them, NOT a toothless probing shorebird bill like a sandpiper's. A primitive Mesozoic bird, NOT any modern bird species: NOT a sparrow, finch, sandpiper, kingfisher, pigeon, parrot, crow or hummingbird look-alike. Two small clawed fingers clearly visible sticking out from the front edge of each wing near the wrist. A short tail ending in a pygostyle (a small fused bony plate), NOT a long bony tail, with short tail feathers and NO broad fan-shaped tail like a modern bird. Reference: Longipteryx is a genus of prehistoric bird which lived during the Early Cretaceous. It contains a single species, Longipteryx chaoyangensis. Its remains have been recovered from the Jiufotang Formation at Chaoyang in Liaoning Province, China. Anatomy: perching feet with the first toe reversed to oppose the other three, and strongly curved claws; body fully covered in feathers, wings with long asymmetric flight feathers. Full body in side view, whole animal visible, perched or standing in an Early Cretaceous forest by a lake in northeastern China, like the Jehol Biota of Liaoning and Hebei, with conifers, ginkgoes and ferns, no grass. Natural history museum illustration style, realistic textures and natural daylight, muted natural colors. No text, no labels, no humans, no modern objects.

Facts in the prompt come from Wikipedia (en) and Paleobiology Database