Dino card No. 0865 of 2,027

Ikrandraco

Say it: eye-KRAN-dra-ko

Name means: “Ikran dragon, after the flying creatures in the movie Avatar”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Ikrandraco was a flying reptile that lived about 120 million years ago. It had a long, low skull and a sharp blade-like crest on its lower jaw, unlike any other pterosaur. Scientists think it skimmed over lakes to catch fish, maybe even using a throat pouch like a pelican.2

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

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Liaoning Province, China (Jiufotang Formation)2

Food

Fish2 4

Length

1.5 to 2 m2

estimated from skull and partial skeleton

Wingspan

3 to 4 m2

estimated from partial wings

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 4 house cats nose to tailas long as 11 bananas end to end

How big was Ikrandraco compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Ikrandraco's lower jaw had a deep, blade-like crest with a hook at the back. No other pterosaur has this feature.2

The hook on the crest might have anchored a throat pouch, like a pelican's, to store fish.2 1

Its skull was very low and long, only about 18.7% as tall as it was long.2

Ikrandraco lived alongside other fish-eating pterosaurs like Liaoningopterus and Guidraco, but they had different teeth and hunting styles.2

The name Ikrandraco comes from the fictional 'ikran' creatures in the movie Avatar, which also have a head crest.1

Two fossils of Ikrandraco have been found, both from the same rock formation in China.2

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

?How big was Ikrandraco?

Its skull was about 286.5 millimetres (11.28 inches) long. The full size of the animal is not known from the fossils found so far.1

?What did Ikrandraco eat?

It ate fish. Scientists think it skimmed over lakes to catch them, and it may have stored fish in a throat pouch like a pelican.1 3

?Did Ikrandraco have feathers?

No, Ikrandraco was a pterosaur, a flying reptile. Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs and they had hair like structures called pycnofibres instead of feathers.1

?Where did Ikrandraco live?

It lived in what is now northeastern China, about 120 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous.1 3

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Myth buster

Myth: Ikrandraco was a dinosaur.

Truth: Ikrandraco was a pterosaur, a flying reptile that is not a dinosaur.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Ikrandraco
Named by: Wang et al. 20144
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Pteranodontoidea4
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea4
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)4
Rock formations: Jiufotang4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Ikrandraco was named in 2014 by Wang Xiaolin and colleagues, based on a partial skeleton found in Liaoning, China. A second skull was also found nearby.2 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Ikrandraco really used its crest for skimming or if it had a throat pouch, because no soft tissue is preserved.2

Where the facts come from

Ikrandraco (en.wikipedia.org)
An Early Cretaceous pterosaur with an unusual mandibular crest from China and a potential novel feeding strategy | Scientific Reports (nature.com)
untitled (nature.com)
Ikrandraco 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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