Dino card No. 0293 of 2,027

Boreopterus

Say it: bore-ee-OP-ter-us

Name means: “northern wing”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Boreopterus was a flying reptile that lived in China about 124 million years ago. It had a long, low skull packed with lots of sharp teeth, like a fish trap. Scientists think it swam through the water to catch fish, just like some dolphins do today.1

Fun fact: pterosaurs flew over the dinosaurs, but they were their cousins, not dinosaurs themselves.

Lived

126 to 120 million years ago2

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Liaoning Province, China1

Food

Fish2 1

Wingspan

1.45 m1

estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How wide were its wings?

as long as 3 house cats nose to tail

How big was Boreopterus compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Boreopterus had at least 27 teeth on each side of both its upper and lower jaws, a huge number for a pterosaur.1

The front nine pairs of teeth were especially large and formed a mesh that helped trap slippery fish.1

Its wingspan was only about 1.45 metres (4.76 feet), making it a small to medium-sized pterosaur.1

It lived during the Early Cretaceous period, around 124.6 million years ago.1

Some scientists think Boreopterus foraged while swimming, using its needle-like teeth to snatch prey, similar to modern Platanista river dolphins.1

The closely related pterosaur Zhenyuanopterus might actually be the adult form of Boreopterus, but scientists are not sure.1

AI-made picture of Boreopterus — An AI-made picture of how Boreopterus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Boreopterus

?Was Boreopterus a dinosaur?

No, Boreopterus was a pterosaur, which is a flying reptile and not a dinosaur.1

?How big was Boreopterus?

Its wingspan was about 1.45 metres (4.76 feet), and its skull was 235 millimetres (9.25 inches) long.1

?What did Boreopterus eat?

It ate fish. It had many sharp teeth that formed a mesh to trap slippery fish, and it may have swum through the water to catch them, like some dolphins do today.1

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Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Boreopterus was a dinosaur.

Truth: Boreopterus was a pterosaur, a flying reptile that is not a dinosaur.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Boreopterus
Named by: Lü and Ji 20052
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Boreopteridae2
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea2
Age of the rocks: 126 to 120 million years (Barremian / Aptian)2
Rock formations: Yixian2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Lü Junchang and Ji Qiang named Boreopterus in 2005 based on a nearly complete skeleton and skull found in the Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China.1
Still debated: Scientists debate whether the pterosaur Zhenyuanopterus is actually the adult form of Boreopterus.1

Where the facts come from

Boreopterus (en.wikipedia.org)
Boreopterus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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