Dino card No. 0765 of 2,027

Guidraco

Say it: GWEE-drah-koh

Name means: “malicious ghost dragon”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Guidraco was a flying reptile with a scary name meaning 'malicious ghost dragon'. It had a long beak full of sharp teeth that stuck out in all directions, perfect for snatching fish from the water.1

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

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago2

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Sihedang near Lingyuan City, Liaoning Province, China1 2

Food

Fish1 2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Guidraco had 82 teeth in its head, with the front ones being very long and sticking out far beyond the beak.1

The first tooth in the upper jaw pointed almost straight forward, like a spear.1

Guidraco lived about 120 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous period.1

Its neck vertebrae had large holes that let air sacs enter the bones, making them lighter for flight.1

Guidraco is closely related to Ludodactylus, a pterosaur from Brazil, showing that pterosaurs moved between continents.1

The only fossil found so far is a partial skeleton including a nearly complete skull and neck bones.1

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

?How big was Guidraco?

Its skull was about 38 centimetres (15 inches) long. The rest of its body is not fully known, so its total size is an estimate.1

?What did Guidraco eat?

It ate fish. Its long, interlocking front teeth worked like a trap to grab slippery fish.1

?Where was Guidraco found?

It was found in Liaoning Province, northeast China, in the Jiufotang Formation.1

?Is Guidraco a dinosaur?

No, Guidraco is a pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived alongside dinosaurs but is not a dinosaur.1

?Why is it called Guidraco?

Its name means 'malicious ghost dragon' in Chinese and Latin. 'Gui' means ghost in Chinese, and 'draco' means dragon in Latin.1

?Did Guidraco have a crest?

Yes, it had a large, rounded crest on top of its skull, above the eye sockets. It pointed slightly forward.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Guidraco
Named by: Wang et al. 20122
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Ornithocheiroidea2
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea2
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)2
Rock formations: Jiufotang2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Guidraco was named in 2012 by Wang Xiaolin, Alexander W.A. Kellner, Jiang Shunxing, and Xin Cheng. The fossil was found in the Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, China.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Guidraco belongs to the Anhangueridae family or the Boreopteridae family.1

Where the facts come from

Guidraco (en.wikipedia.org)
Guidraco 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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