Nemicolopterus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 120 Ma
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Holotype specimen
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Pterosauria
Suborder: †Pterodactyloidea
Clade: †Tapejaromorpha
Genus: †Nemicolopterus
Wang et al., 2008
Type species
†Nemicolopterus crypticus
Wang et al., 2008

Nemicolopterus is a dubious genus of tapejaromorph pterosaur, based on a very small specimen described as the smallest known "adult" pterosaur to date. It lived in the Jehol Biota 120 million years ago.

Discovery and naming

The generic name "Nemicolopterus" comes from the following Greek words: "Nemos" meaning "forest", "ikolos" meaning "dweller", and Latinised "pteron" meaning "wing". The specific name crypticus is from "kryptos", meaning "hidden". Thus "Nemicolopterus crypticus" means "Hidden flying forest dweller".

Description

Life restoration

The type fossil specimen of N. crypticus, catalog number IVPP V-14377, is housed in the collection of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China. The fossil was collected from the Jiufotang Formation, which is of Aptian age (120 mya). It was discovered in the Luzhhouou locality of Yaolugou Town, Jianchang County, Huludao City, western Liaoning Province in northeastern China. It has a wingspan of slightly under 25 centimeters (10 in), making it smaller than all but a few specimens of hatchling pterosaurs.[1] Wang et al. (2008), who originally described the specimen, concluded that it was immature, citing the amount of bone fusion and the ossification of the toes, gastralia, and sternum as indicating that it was a sub-adult rather than a hatchling. However, Darren Naish argued on his popular weblog that, due to the hypothesis that pterosaurs were highly precocial, bone fusion and ossification could have occurred very early in life, and that Nemicolopterus might in fact be a hatchling individual of the genus Sinopterus.[2] This identification was formally presented in 2021 study, which found that Nemicolopterus fit into a growth series as a young juvenile or hatchling Sinopterus hatchling.[3]

Classification

An analysis of pterosaur relationships by Andres and colleagues in 2014 found the specimen in a sister group relationship with "Sinopterus" gui.[4]

A 2023 revision of Sinopterus concluded that it was impossible to assign the Nemicolopterus specimen to either Sinopterus or the new genus Huaxiadraco, and it was therefore considered an indeterminate sinopterine.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ Wang, X.; Kellner, A. W. A.; Zhou, Z.; de Almeida Campos, D. (12 February 2008). "Discovery of a rare arboreal forest-dwelling flying reptile (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea) from China". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (6): 1983–1987. doi:10.1073/pnas.0707728105. PMC 2538868. PMID 18268340.
  2. ^ "Tiny pterosaurs and pac-man frogs from hell". ScienceBlogs. 19 March 2008.[unreliable source?]
  3. ^ Naish, Darren; Witton, Mark P.; Martin-Silverstone, Elizabeth (22 July 2021). "Powered flight in hatchling pterosaurs: evidence from wing form and bone strength". Scientific Reports. 11 (1): 13130. Bibcode:2021NatSR..1113130N. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-92499-z. PMC 8298463. PMID 34294737.
  4. ^ Andres, Brian; Clark, James; Xu, Xing (May 2014). "The Earliest Pterodactyloid and the Origin of the Group". Current Biology. 24 (9): 1011–1016. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.030. PMID 24768054. S2CID 18293296.
  5. ^ Pêgas, Rodrigo V.; Zhou, Xuanyu; Jin, Xingsheng; Wang, Kai; Ma, Waisum (2023). "A taxonomic revision of the Sinopterus complex (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, with the new genus Huaxiadraco". PeerJ. 11: e14829. doi:10.7717/peerj.14829. PMC 9922500. PMID 36788812.
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