How volcanic phosphorus supply boosted the Jehol Biota in northern China phys.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from phys.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
China's Yanliao Biota, an assembly of fossils preserved in northeastern China dating from the Middle to Late Jurassic (174 to 145 million years ago), offers an important window into the evolution of vertebrates.
China s Yanliao Biota offers a new window into mammal evolution since the Triassic phys.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from phys.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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