Dino card No. 0817 of 2,027

Hongshanopterus

Say it: hong-SHAN-op-TER-us

Name means: “wing from the Hongshan culture”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Hongshanopterus was a flying reptile that lived about 120 million years ago in what is now China. It had a wingspan as wide as a small car and used its sharp teeth to catch fish.1 3

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

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Dapingfang, Liaoning, China3 1

Wingspan

1.8 to 1.9 m (5.9 to 6.2 ft)1

Top speed

about 47 km/h (29 mph)

Flying, estimate

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 4 house cats nose to tailcould fly across a whole football pitch in 8 seconds

How big was Hongshanopterus compared to YOU?

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

How fast was it?

A person walking about 5 km/h (3 mph)

A kid on a bike about 12 km/h (7 mph)

Hongshanopterus about 47 km/h (29 mph)

A galloping horse about 65 km/h (40 mph)

A cheetah about 100 km/h (62 mph)

cool stuff

Fun facts

Hongshanopterus had about 36 teeth in its upper jaws, more than most other istiodactylid pterosaurs.1

Its teeth were flattened from the mouth side to the lip side and had triangular crowns, like other istiodactylids.1

Some of its teeth pointed backwards, which is unusual and helped it grab slippery fish.1

The only fossil found so far is a skull and five neck bones from a young adult.1

Hongshanopterus is considered the most primitive member of its family, the Istiodactylidae.1 2

It lived in the Early Cretaceous period, about 121 to 113 million years ago.3

AI-made picture of Hongshanopterus — An AI-made picture of how Hongshanopterus 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: Hongshanopterus
Named by: Wang et al. 20083
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Istiodactyliformes3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea3
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)3
Rock formations: Jiufotang3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Hongshanopterus was named in 2008 by Wang Xiaolin and his team based on a skull and neck bones found in Liaoning, China.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Hongshanopterus is more closely related to Istiodactylidae or to other pterosaur groups like Anhangueridae.1 2

Where the facts come from

Hongshanopterus (en.wikipedia.org)
A primitive istiodactylid pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea) from the Jiufotang Formation (Early Cretaceous), northeast China | Zootaxa (mapress.com)
Hongshanopterus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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