| Nemicolopterus Fossil range: Early Cretaceous |
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Nemicolopterus is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur, described in 2008. In Taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus. A genus (plural genera from Γένος Latin genus "descent family type gender" is a low-level Taxonomic Pterodactyloidea (derived from the Greek Words πτερόν ( pterón, for usual ptéryx) "wing" and δάκτυλος For other meanings see Pterodactyl (disambiguation. Pterosaurs (ˈtɛrəsɔr from the Greek πτερόσαυρος pterosauros The type and only known species is N. In Taxonomy, a type species is the species that originally defined a genus. crypticus. It lived in the Jehol Biota 120 million years ago, and was found in the Jiufotang Formation in what is now the western part of China's Liaoning Province in northeastern China. The Jehol Biota includes all the living organisms - the Ecosystem - of northeastern China between 133 to 120 million years ago The Jiufotang Formation is an Early Cretaceous geological formation in Chaoyang Liaoning which has yielded fossils of feathered Dinosaurs primitive birds ( is a northeastern province of the People's Republic of China. China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Its wingspan of slightly under 25 centimeters (10 in) makes it smaller than any but a few specimens of hatchling pterosaurs. The wingspan (or just span) of an airplane or a Bird, is the distance from the left wingtip to the right wingtip A centimetre ( American spelling: centimeter, symbol cm) is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to one hundredth Inches redirects here To see the Les Savy Fav album see Inches. [1] The specimen is not yet fully grown, but Wang et al. (2008) cite the amount of bone fusion and the ossification of the toes, gastralia and sternum to indicate that it was a sub-adult rather than a hatchling. Adult Nemicolopterus were therefore probably the smallest known adult pterosaurs.
Nemicolopterus is a toothless pterosaur. Wang et al. (2008) concluded that it is a primitive intermediate between the toothed pterosaurs of the Ornithocheiroidea and the often toothless pterosaurs of the Dsungaripteroidea. Ornithocheiroidea is a group of Pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Dsungaripteroidea is a group of Pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Though Nemicolopterus is tiny, some of the members of these groups eventually evolved into the largest flying animals that ever lived, like Quetzalcoatlus. Quetzalcoatlus (named for the Aztec feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl) was a pterodactyloid Pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous
Nemicolopterus also demonstrates clear adaptations of the toes and claws for grasping tree branches. Most pterosaurs are known from marine sediments, meaning that they probably caught fish in the ocean and landed on the adjacent beaches or cliffs. Nemicolopterus, on the other hand, is one of just a few pterosaurs that lived in the continental interior, and probably hunted insects and roosted in the forest canopy. [1]
References
- ^ Wang, X. , Kellner, A. W. A. , Zhou, Z. , and Campos, D. A. (2008). "Discovery of a rare arboreal forest-dwelling flying reptile (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) from China. " Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(6): 1983–1987. doi:10. 1073/pnas. 0707728105
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