Gobi desert reveals modest ancestor of gigantic flying reptiles
Scientists have said they have found a fossil from 163 million years ago that is the oldest known ancestor of advanced flying reptiles that culminated in the largest flying creatures in earth's history.
It was the start of something big - really big. Scientists have said they have found a fossil from 163 million years ago that is the oldest known ancestor of advanced flying reptiles that culminated in the largest flying creatures in earth's history.
The newly identified Jurassic period creature, a species named Kryptodrakon progenitor unearthed at a Gobi desert site called the Shishugou formation in Xinjiang , had a modest wingspan of 1.3 metres.
But later members of its branch of the flying reptiles known as pterosaurs were truly colossal, including Quetzalcoatlus, whose 10.7-metre wingspan was the same as an F-16 fighter.
The genus name, Kryptodrakon, means "hidden dragon" in honour of the 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, that had parts filmed near where it was unearthed. Its species name, progenitor, means ancestral.
Roughly 220 million years ago, pterosaurs became the first flying vertebrates to appear on earth, with birds - first appearing about 150 million years ago - and bats - flying mammals that appeared about 50 million years ago - coming much later.
Pterosaurs arose during the Triassic period not long after their cousins, the dinosaurs, also made their debut. Their wings were supported by an incredibly elongated fourth digit of the hand - the "pinky finger".