Archaeoistiodactylus
Archaeoistiodactylus was a flying reptile that lived in China during the Middle Jurassic, about 165 million years ago. It had short hand bones and backward-angled front teeth, and it probably ate fish.12
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Fun facts
Archaeoistiodactylus is known from only one incomplete skeleton, including a partial skull and lower jaws.1
Its front teeth in the upper jaw were angled backward, which may have helped it catch slippery fish.1
The name means 'ancient Istiodactylus', because scientists first thought it was an older relative of the pterosaur Istiodactylus.1
Some scientists think Archaeoistiodactylus might actually be a poorly preserved specimen of another pterosaur called Darwinopterus.1
It lived in the Middle Jurassic period, about 165 million years ago, in what is now China.1
The holotype specimen is cataloged as JPM04 to 0008 and was found in the Tiaojishan Formation of western Liaoning, China.1
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- Scientific name
- Archaeoistiodactylus
- Named by
- Lü and Fucha 20104
- Group
- Flying reptiles
- Family / clade
- Istiodactylidae4
- Classification
- Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea4
- Age of the rocks
- 168 to 152 million years (Bathonian / Kimmeridgian)4
- Rock formations
- Tiaojishan4
- Countries
- China4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- Archaeoistiodactylus was named and described by Chinese paleontologists Lü Junchang and Fucha Xiaohui in 2010, based on a partial skeleton found near Linglongta in Liaoning, China.1
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure whether Archaeoistiodactylus is a valid genus or if it is actually a specimen of Darwinopterus or another wukongopterid pterosaur.1
Where the facts come from
- Archaeoistiodactylus (en.wikipedia.org)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- PaleoCodex :: Archaeoistiodactylus (paleocodex.com)
- Archaeoistiodactylus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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