A newly discovered species of flying reptile that lived during the Jurassic Period about 160 million years ago has been discovered in China. What’s even more incredible about this new species was that it had an opposed thumb. This is the earliest-known example of an opposed thumb and the first time ever that it’s been discovered on a flying reptile.
The tree-dwelling reptile has been nicknamed “Monkeydactyl” while its proper name is “
Kunpengopterus antipollicatus” which means “opposite thumbed” in ancient Greek. It was discovered in the Tiaojishan rock formations in Liaoning, China.
The small pterosaur had a wingspan that measured just 2.8 feet (33.6 inches). Its fingers were the most interesting part of the discovery as they were exceptionally small and “partly embedded in the slab” as explained by Waisum Ma who is a palaeontologist from the University of Birmingham and an author of the study. It was its thumb, though, that was the creature’s most astonishi
The idea of prehistoric flying reptiles conjures images of pointed-headed pterodactyls with sharp teeth and leathery skin, but a newly described pterosaur appears more cuddly than you d expect.
Paleontologists in China have uncovered a fossilized skeleton of Sinomacrops bondei, a new species and genus that would have been covered in hair-like filaments and glided through primordial forests.
Classified as an anurognathid, it would have had round eyes and a short, stubby chin, drawing comparisons to the adorable Porgs from Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
It s the first anurognathid found with its full skull exposed in lateral view, allowing scientists to better understand the species evolutionary development and diversification.
A new paper recently published in the journal Paleontology and Evolutionary Science by a crew of international scientists describes an entirely new genus and species unearthed from the Middle-Late Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation in the Hebei province that is only the third species of these diminutive (and kinda cute) pterosaurs from the Jurassic of China.
Credit: Zhao Chuang/PNSO
Officially named Sinomacrops bondei, this fossilized specimen marks the first anurognathid ever discovered with its full skull exposed in lateral view. Following an evoloutionary development analysis of the remains, scientists involved with the study identified the 160 million-year-old Sinomacrops as a sister-group of the pterosaur known as Batrachognathus volans, which together form the whole Batrachognathinae genus.