Fossil discovery of new flying reptile
New fossils discovered in China uncover 160 million-year-old flying reptile
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By Alistair Potter. |  |
Wednesday, 14, Oct 2009 10:58
By inthenews.co.uk staff.
A new type of flying reptile which lived more than 160 million years ago has been discovered by researchers in China.
Darwinopterus, which has been named after Charles Darwin, provides the first clear evidence of modular evolution, experts have said.
Published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers said they found 20 new fossils in the north-east region of China, which show both primitive and more advanced signs of being flying reptiles.
Scientists have said this latest discovery could be the missing link in the evolutionary chain, after the fossils were found in 160 million year-old rocks.
The researchers believe Darwinopterus is a hawk-like reptile with a head and neck just like advanced pterosaurs, but the rest of the skeleton is similar to more primitive forms.
An international group of researchers from the University of Leicester, and the Geological Institute, Beijing identified the reptile.
"Darwinopterus came as quite a shock to us," said David Unwin part of the research team and based at the University of Leicester's School of Museum Studies.
"We had always expected a gap-filler with typically intermediate features such as a moderately elongate tail - neither long nor short - but the strange thing about Darwinopterus is that it has a head and neck just like that of advanced pterosaurs, while the rest of the skeleton, including a very long tail, is identical to that of primitive forms."