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Daohugoupterus

Say it: DOW-hoo-goo-TER-us

Name means: “wing from Daohugou”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesMiddle JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Daohugoupterus was a tiny flying reptile that soared over Jurassic lakes in what is now China. It was the smallest pterosaur found in the Daohugou area, with delicate bones and soft tissue preserved in the rock.1 2

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

Lived

165 to 162 million years ago4

Middle Jurassic

Fossils found in

Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China1 3

Food

Fish3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Daohugoupterus had a very broad sternal plate that was 2.5 times wider than it was long, which helped support its flight muscles.1

Its humerus (upper arm bone) was only 41.8 mm (1.65 inches) long, making it one of the smallest Jurassic pterosaurs.1

The fossil includes impressions of soft tissue, which is rare and helps scientists study its body shape.1 2

Daohugoupterus lived alongside other pterosaurs like Jeholopterus and Pterorhynchus, but it was the smallest of the three.1

Its skull had an unusually small upper temporal fenestra (a hole behind the eye), which is different from many other pterosaurs.2

Daohugoupterus was a basal pterosaur, meaning it was an early type that did not belong to the more advanced group Pterodactyloidea.1

AI-made picture of Daohugoupterus — An AI-made picture of how Daohugoupterus 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.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Daohugoupterus
Named by: Cheng et al. 20154
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Pterosauria4
Classification: Pterosauria4
Age of the rocks: 165 to 162 million years (Callovian)4
Rock formations: Tiaojishan4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Daohugoupterus was named and described in 2015 by Cheng Xin, Wang Xiaolin, Jiang Shunxing and Alexander Kellner. The only known fossil was found near the village of Daohugou in Inner Mongolia, China, and was collected by Zhou Zhonghe and Li Yan.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly where Daohugoupterus fits in the pterosaur family tree, so it is currently placed as Pterosauria incertae sedis (meaning its exact relationships are unknown).1

Where the facts come from

Daohugoupterus (en.wikipedia.org)
Daohugoupterus, new pterosaur from Upper Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China (dml.reptilis.net)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Daohugoupterus 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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