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.
Fluffy Pterosaurs Have Reignited Debate on the Mystery of Dino Feathers 16/12/2020
was one of the earliest known dinosaurs with feathers. Photo: Nobu Tamura/Wikimedia, CC BY SA 4.0
When fossils of the oldest known bird,
Archaeopteryx, were first discovered almost 160 years ago, the find created a puzzle that has troubled palaeontologists ever since.
These fossils were celebrated for their chimera-like combination of supposedly reptilian features (such as a bony tail and jaws with teeth) and those seemingly unique to birds – in particular, feathers. They helped demonstrate that birds actually evolved from dinosaurs.
But they also presented a major evolutionary problem. The prehistoric feathers were indistinguishable from those of birds today. So it wasn’t clear how or when feathers evolved, and in what kinds of ancient beasts.