Tag: flying
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The Oldest Airborne Vertebrate Animal Was a Reptile With ‘Weird’ Wings
Smithsonian Magazine has a story about the first flying vertebrate. The fossil of Weigeltisaurus jaekeli was found in 1992 in Germany. It lived during the Permian Period over 250 million years ago. A new full analysis of the specimen was recently published in the journal PeerJ. Where the researchers theorize that the bony rods supported…
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A Terrifying ‘Dragon’ Was The Largest Known Flying Reptile of Ancient Australia
Science Alert has a story about a terrifying new pterosaur recently described from Australia. It had a seven-meter wingspan, bristling teeth in its jaws, and it flew through the air! That’s how a new pterosaur from Australia has been described. Named Thapunngaka shawi, it lived about 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The…
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Pterosaurs may have been able to fly as soon as they hatched
ScienceNews has a story about pterosaurs. New research suggests that pterosaur hatchlings might have been able to fly right after hatching. This study was published in the journal Scientific Reports. Pterosaur hatchlings may have been able to fly right out of the shell — although the flight of those ancient baby reptiles might have looked…
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Unique Bone Structure Helped Long-Necked Pterosaurs Fly
Smithsonian Magazine has an interesting article about the largest pterosaurs. These animals were very large with the wingspans of small plaines (8 meters) and necks as long as a giraffe (1.5 meters). A recent paper (April 14th, 2021) in Science Magazine details how these animals supported their large head and necks with a novel spoke…
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SciAm: Pterosaur Origins Flap into Focus
Scientific American has a piece on the origins of pterosaurs. A group of animals called lagerpetids are now thought to e the ancestors of pterosaurs. These animals lived between 237 and 201 million years ago during the Triassic Period. The details are in a paper in the journal Nature, which was published by Sterling Nesbitt,…
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What Did Pterosaurs Eat? Look Very Closely at Their Teeth
Wired.com has a story about pterosaurs. Want to know what an animal eats… look at its teeth! That’s exactly what a paper published in Nature Communications did. The researcher imaged teeth of pterosaurs using a method called infinite focus microscopy. This allowed them to compare the teeth with modern animals, whose diets we know. THE…
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SciNews: New Pterosaur Species Unearthed in China
Sci-News has a story about a new pterosaur discovery in China. This new species is called Ordosipteris planignathus. It lived about 110 -120 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in what is now Inner Mongolia, China. A paper describing this animal appeared the journal China Geology.
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Four New Species of Prehistoric Flying Reptiles Unearthed in Morocco
Smithsonian Magazine has an article about the recent discovery of not 1. not 2, but 4 new species of pterosaur. These animals were found in the famous Kem Kem fossil beds in southeastern Morocco. They lived about 100 million years ago during the middle Cretaceous Period. All the details are in a paper published in…
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Palaecast Episode 105: Ferrodraco
There’s a new episode of Palaeocast. This one is about the new Australian pterosaur, Ferrodraco lentoni, which was recently described in a paper that appeared in Scientific Reports. Discovered in the Winton area of central western Queensland, it had a wingspan of about 4 meters (13 feet). This animal lived about 96 million years ago,…
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LiveScience: Meet ‘Cold Dragon of the North Winds,’ the Giant Pterosaur That Once Soared Across Canadian Skies
Live Science has a story about a new giant pterosaur. The animal, Cryodrakon boreas (cold dragon of the north winds), was discovered in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada. It is thought to have lived between 77 million to 74 million years ago. The bones were originally found decades ago and were thought to be…
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ScienceAlert: A Fossil of a Ginormous Flying Reptile Has Just Been Discovered in Australia
Science Alert has a story about a huge pterosaur discovery in Australia. Pterosaurs seem to be in the news lately and this one is called “Iron Dragon”, Ferrodraco lentoni. Discovered in the Winton area of central western Queensland, it had a wingspan of about 4 meters (13 feet). This animal lived about 96 million years…
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SciAm: Pterosaurs Were Monsters of the Mesozoic Skies
Scientific American has an article about pterosaurs. It seems that they not the birds, which are dinosaurs, ruled the skies. Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight. They ranged in size from the size of a small plane to the size of a modern sparrow. Many had heads larger than their bodies… they…
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SciNews: New Bird-Like Dinosaur Unearthed in Wyoming
SciNews has an article about the discovery of a new bird-like dinosaur in Wyoming. The animal, Hesperornithoides miessleri, lived about 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic period. It has been nicknamed Lori and was about the size of a chicken. Its contemporaries were giant dinosaurs like Stegaoaurus, Diplodocus, and Allosaurus. The description appeared in…
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Smithsonian: Discovery of Raptor-Like Dinosaur Adds a New Wrinkle to the Origin of Birds
Smithsonian has a story about the discovery of a small dinosaur that sheds light on the origin of birds. While excavating a Supersaurus nicknamed “Jimbo”, Wyoming Dinosaur Center paleontologist spotted some small bones amongst the enormous bones. Named Hesperornithoides miessleri, the animal lived about 150 million years ago during the late Jurassic. The specimen is referred…
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Newly Discovered Bat-Like Dinosaur Reveals the Intricacies of Prehistoric Flight
The Smithsonian has a story about a new “bat-like” dinosaur from China. This animal lived about 160 million years ago in the middle Jurassic. It’s called Ambopteryx longibrachium and it’s seems to be related to Yi qi, which was described back in 2015. The description of Ambopteryx appeared recently in the jounal Nature. About 160…
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This Dino-Era Bird Was as Advanced as Modern Species. So Why Did It Disappear?
The Smithsonian has a piece about a recently rediscovered 70 million year old fossil bird from the Cretaceous Period. The specimen was originally found 25 years ago in the Kaiparowits Formation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It’s called Miracre eatoni, and it was about the size of a turkey vulture. It has been described…
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Chinese Cretaceous fossil highlights avian evolution
Phys.org has a story about a newly identified extinct bird species. The 127 million year old bird lived in what is now northeastern China. Its name is Jinguoforis perplexus and it provides new information about avian development during the early evolution of flight. Details are provided in a paper published in PNAS. Drs. Wang Min,…
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We Have Probably Been Imagining Pterosaurs All Wrong
Atlas Obscura has an article about pterosaurs. Good background information and a discussion of a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It seems someone(s), Armita R Manafzadeh and Kevin Padian, mapped the ligament constraints on hip mobility of extinct ornithodirans (pterosaurs). It seems that it is very unlikely that pterosaurs flew with…
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SciAm: Meet “Dracula,” the Largest Pterosaur Found to Date
Scientific American has a story about the largest pterosaur ever found. It has been nicknamed “Dracula”. It lived during the Cretaceous period. At 3.5 meters tall, it was the size of a giraffe. It is on display at the Altmuhltal Dinosaur Museum in Denkendorf, Germany. The bones were discovered by Romanian scientists in 2009 among…
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NYT: Insects Flew Before Anything Else Did. So How Did They Get Their Wings?
The New York Times has an interesting story about the first flyers… insects. The article discusses recent research to discover how insects evolved the ability to fly. Strange to think that all those Mazon Creek flying insects were pretty new to the world of flying! Beetle wings are often hidden. Nestled behind armored shields on…
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Palaeocast Episode 87: Archaeopteryx
Palaeocast episode 87 is about Archaeopteryx. Archaeopteryx lived about 150 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, in what is now southern Germany. Including the first feather, discovered in 1860 or 1861, there are now twelve specimens. All have been found in the limestone deposits near Solnhofen, Germany. The iconic “Berlin” specimen shown above was…
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NY Times: Hundreds of Fossilized Pterosaur Eggs Uncovered in China
The New York Times’ Trilobite blog has a story about the discovery of a more than 200 fossilized Pterosaur eggs. The species of pterosaur is known as Hamitpterus tianshanensis and it lived in the early Cretaceous period in what is now north western China. Xiaolin Wang discovered the eggs in a 120 million year old…
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NatGeo: Why Pterosaurs Were the Weirdest Wonders on Wings
National Geographic Magazine has a interesting story in their November 2017 issue. Large and small pterosaurs are some of the strangest animals to ever live. They went extinct 65 million years ago during the end Cretaceous mass extinction event. This article has many details and great pictures which describe what and who pterosaurs were during…
