Dino card No. 0485 of 2,027

Darwinopterus

Say it: DAR-win-OP-ter-us

Name means: “Darwin's wing”1

Ate: InsectsFlying reptilesMiddle Jurassic to Late JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Imagine a flying reptile that looks like it got its head from one group and its tail from another. That is Darwinopterus. It lived in the middle Jurassic period, about 160 million years ago, in what is now China.1 2

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

Lived

168 to 152 million years ago5

Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Liaoning Province, China5 1

Food

Insects1

Length

0.34 to 0.46 m2

forelimb length, not full body length

Wingspan

0.75 m3

estimate for D. camposi holotype

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 2.5 bananas end to end

How big was Darwinopterus compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Darwinopterus was a 'transitional fossil' because it had a head and neck like later short-tailed pterosaurs, but a long tail like earlier ones.1 2

More than 30 fossils of Darwinopterus have been found, all from the same rock layer in China.1

The name Darwinopterus honors Charles Darwin, the famous scientist who came up with the idea of evolution by natural selection.1 2

Darwinopterus had a very long tail, made of more than 20 vertebrae, with thin bony rods wrapping around it.2

Its skull was huge, almost twice as long as the bones of its back. That's even bigger than many later pterosaurs.2

Darwinopterus had about 15 pairs of slender, spike-like teeth in its mouth, good for gripping prey.2

The first Darwinopterus species, D. modularis, was named in 2010. Later, three more species were added in 2011, 2025, and 2010.1 5

AI-made picture of Darwinopterus — An AI-made picture of how Darwinopterus 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 Darwinopterus

?Was Darwinopterus a dinosaur?

No, Darwinopterus was a pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived while dinosaurs walked on land. Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs.4 1

?How big was Darwinopterus?

It was a relatively small pterosaur. Its skull was about 0.14 to 0.19 metres long, and its forelimbs were about 0.34 to 0.46 metres long.2

?What did Darwinopterus eat?

Its slender, spike-like teeth were well suited for gripping prey, so it probably caught small animals like insects or fish. Scientists infer this from the tooth shape.2 1

?Why is Darwinopterus called a transitional fossil?

Because it had a head and neck like later short-tailed pterosaurs, but a long tail like earlier ones. This mix shows how one group evolved into the other.1 4

Ask Rex about Darwinopterus

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Darwinopterus
Named by: Lü et al. 20105
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Monofenestrata5
Classification: Pterosauria5
Age of the rocks: 168 to 152 million years (Bathonian / Kimmeridgian)5
Rock formations: Tiaojishan5
Countries: China5
Fossil records: 4 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: The first Darwinopterus fossil was found at Linglongta, Liaoning Province, China, in rocks of the Tiaojishan Formation. Scientists Lü Junchang, David Unwin, and others named it in 2010. It was described in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Darwinopterus was a fast aerial hunter or mainly an insectivore that hopped on the ground.1

Where the facts come from

Darwinopterus (en.wikipedia.org)
Evidence for modular evolution in a long-tailed pterosaur with a pterodactyloid skull (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Brazil - A new species of Darwinopterus (Wukongopteridae, Pterosauria) from western Liaoning provides some new information on the ontogeny of this clade A new species of <i>Darwinopterus</i> (Wukongopteridae, Pterosauria) from western Liaoning provides some new information on the ontogeny of this clade (scielo.br)
Darwinopterus, a Transitional Pterosaur (smithsonianmag.com)
Darwinopterus 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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