Epidendrosaurus
Epidendrosaurus was a tiny, bird-like dinosaur that lived about 165 million years ago. It had an extra-long third finger on each hand, which it probably used to climb trees and grab insects. This little dinosaur was about the size of a house sparrow!12
When did it live?
How fast was it?
Fun facts
Epidendrosaurus had an extremely long third finger on each hand, nearly twice as long as in other similar dinosaurs.1
Its foot bones were arranged almost at the same level, like perching birds, which helped it grip branches.1
The only known fossil is a juvenile, so scientists are not sure how big an adult Epidendrosaurus would have been.1
It lived during the Middle Jurassic period, about 165 to 161 million years ago, in what is now China.2
Epidendrosaurus is one of the earliest known dinosaurs with adaptations for climbing trees.1
Its name means 'tree lizard' because of its tree-climbing lifestyle.1
Most asked questions about Epidendrosaurus
?What did Epidendrosaurus eat?
It was a meat-eating dinosaur that probably ate insects, like the modern aye-aye which uses a long finger to find bugs in trees.3
?How big was Epidendrosaurus?
It was about the size of a house sparrow, so only about 14 to 16 centimetres long. But the only known fossil is a juvenile, so adults might have been a bit bigger.13
?Did Epidendrosaurus have feathers?
Yes, the related Scansoriopteryx fossil shows impressions of down-like feathers, and Epidendrosaurus probably had them too.4
?Could Epidendrosaurus fly?
No, it could not fly. It was a tree-climber that used its long fingers and grasping feet to move among branches, possibly gliding a little.43
?Why did Epidendrosaurus have a long third finger?
Scientists think the extremely long third finger helped it climb trees and grab insects, similar to how an aye-aye uses its long middle finger.3
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Epidendrosaurus
- Named by
- Zhang et al. 20025
- Group
- Meat-eating dinos
- Family / clade
- Scansoriopterygidae5
- Classification
- Theropoda5
- Age of the rocks
- 165 to 162 million years (Callovian)5
- Rock formations
- Tiaojishan5
- Countries
- China5
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
- Discovery
- Epidendrosaurus was named in 2002 by Zhang Fucheng and his team based on a single juvenile skeleton found at Daohugou in Inner Mongolia, China.21
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure exactly what the extremely long third finger was used for, though it may have helped with climbing or grabbing.1
Where the facts come from
- Epidendrosaurus: tree-climbing theropod from China (dml.reptilis.net)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- Introduction (ivpp.cas.cn)
- Scansoriopteryx (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia)
- Epidendrosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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