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Eosipterus

Say it: ee-oh-SIP-ter-us

Name means: “dawn wing”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Eosipterus was a flying reptile that soared over ancient lakes in China about 125 million years ago. It had long, slender wings and a short tail, and it probably scooped up fish with its beak.1 3

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

Lived

126 to 120 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Liaoning Province, China1 2

Food

Fish3

Wingspan

1.2 m1 2

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 2.5 house cats nose to tail

How big was Eosipterus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Eosipterus was the first pterosaur ever found in western Liaoning Province, China.1 2

Its wingspan was about 1.2 meters (3.9 feet), making it a medium-sized pterosaur.1 2

The fossil of Eosipterus is missing its skull and neck, so scientists are not sure what its head looked like.1

Eosipterus had a short tail and strong forelimbs, which are features of advanced pterosaurs called pterodactyloids.1 2

Its fifth toe was reduced to a single claw, a sign that it was evolving away from walking on the ground.1

Eosipterus lived alongside the early bird Confuciusornis in the same ancient ecosystem.2

AI-made picture of Eosipterus — An AI-made picture of how Eosipterus 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: Eosipterus
Named by: Ji and Ji 19973
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Lophocratia3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea3
Age of the rocks: 126 to 120 million years (Barremian / Aptian)3
Rock formations: Yixian3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Eosipterus was named in 1997 by Chinese paleontologists Ji Shu'an and Ji Qiang. The fossil was found near Jinggangshan in Liaoning Province, China.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure which exact group of pterosaurs Eosipterus belongs to. Some think it is a ctenochasmatid, while others have placed it in different groups.1

Where the facts come from

Eosipterus (en.wikipedia.org)
The first discovery of a pterosaur from western Liaoning Province (naturalhistory.si.edu)
Eosipterus 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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