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Jidapterus

Say it: ji-DAP-teh-rus
Name means: “Jilin University wing”1
Ate: A bit of everythingFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Jidapterus was a toothless flying reptile that lived in what is now China about 122 million years ago. It had a long, pointed beak and a wingspan as wide as a tall adult person. It probably walked on the ground a lot, like a stork, and ate small animals or maybe fruits.12

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
Chaoyang, Liaoning Province, China13
Wingspan
1.45 to 1.71 m (4.8 to 5.6 ft)2
estimated for a juvenile; adult may have been larger
Top speed
about 52 km/h (32 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?

Jidapterus wings about 1.71 m tip to tip (5.6 ft)A house cat about 0.5 m (1.6 ft)A dog about 1 m (3.3 ft)A bicycle about 1.8 m (5.9 ft)
as long as 3 house cats nose to tailcould fly across a whole football pitch in 7.3 seconds

How big was Jidapterus compared to YOU?

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How fast was it?

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Fun facts

1

Jidapterus had no teeth. Its beak was long, straight, and very pointed, like a modern bird's beak.1

2

The only known skeleton of Jidapterus is nearly complete, with a partial skull. It belonged to a young individual that was not fully grown.2

3

Jidapterus belonged to a group called chaoyangopterids. These pterosaurs had long legs and compact feet, which helped them walk well on the ground.2

4

Scientists think Jidapterus was more at home on the ground than in trees. Its claws were not very curved, so it probably did not climb much.2

5

The name Jidapterus comes from Jilin University in China, where the scientists who named it worked. 'Pterus' means wing in Greek.1

6

Jidapterus lived alongside other pterosaurs like Chaoyangopterus and tapejarids. Tapejarids had parrot-like beaks and probably ate fruits and seeds.2

AI-madeAI-made picture of Jidapterus
An AI-made picture of how Jidapterus 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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Scientific name
Jidapterus
Named by
Dong et al. 20033
Group
Flying reptiles
Family / clade
Tapejaridae3
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
Jidapterus was named in 2003 by Dong Zhiming, Sun Yue-Wu, and Wu Shao-Yuan. The only skeleton was found in Chaoyang, Liaoning, China, in the Jiufotang Formation.13
Still debated
Scientists are not sure exactly what Jidapterus ate. Some think it was a fish-eater, while others believe it ate small animals or even fruits and seeds.2

Where the facts come from

  1. en.wikipedia.org (en.wikipedia.org)
  2. The toothless pterosaur Jidapterus edentus (Pterodactyloidea: Azhdarchoidea) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota and its paleoecological implications | PLOS One (journals.plos.org)
  3. Jidapterus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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More from the same group: Flying reptiles

Also from the same time: Early Cretaceous

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