Dino card No. 0995 of 2,027

Kunpengopterus

Say it: koon-PENG-op-TER-us

Name means: “Kunpeng wing”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesMiddle Jurassic to Late JurassicNot technically a dinosaur

Kunpengopterus was a flying reptile that lived in what is now China during the Jurassic Period. It had a long tail and a head like a bird, and it ate fish.2 3

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

Lived

168 to 152 million years ago6

Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Liaoning Province, China2 1

Food

Fish3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Kunpengopterus sinensis is known from two nearly complete skeletons, one adult and one juvenile, found with fossilized vomit pellets nearby.3

The vomit pellets contain scales of palaeonisciform fish, proving that Kunpengopterus ate fish and could vomit indigestible parts.3

Both the adult and juvenile Kunpengopterus had similar teeth and could fly soon after hatching, like some other pterosaurs.3

The name Kunpengopterus comes from Chinese mythology: the Kun was a giant fish that could turn into the Peng, a huge bird.1

Kunpengopterus lived between about 168 and 152 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic Period.2

The type specimen of Kunpengopterus sinensis is an almost complete skeleton with a full skull and lower jaws.1

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

?How big was Kunpengopterus?

Its head was about 10.7 centimetres (4.2 inches) long. The whole body was small, like a modern bird.1

?Did Kunpengopterus have feathers?

No, it did not have feathers. It had pycnofibers, which are thin, hair-like fibers, on its body.4

?What did Kunpengopterus eat?

It ate fish, especially palaeonisciform fish. Scientists know this because fossilized vomit pellets containing fish scales were found with its skeletons.5

?Could Kunpengopterus fly?

Yes, it could fly. Even young Kunpengopterus could fly soon after hatching, just like adults.5

Ask Rex about Kunpengopterus

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Kunpengopterus
Named by: Wang et al. 20106
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Wukongopteridae6
Classification: Pterosauria6
Age of the rocks: 168 to 152 million years (Bathonian / Kimmeridgian)6
Rock formations: Tiaojishan6
Countries: China6
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database6
Discovery: Kunpengopterus sinensis was named by Wang Xiaolin and colleagues in 2010, based on a fossil found in the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning, China.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure about the exact age of the rocks that contain Kunpengopterus fossils, which may be from the Middle or Late Jurassic.1

Where the facts come from

Kunpengopterus (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Two emetolite-pterosaur associations from the Late Jurassic of China: showing the first evidence for antiperistalsis in (royalsocietypublishing.org)
New long-tailed pterosaurs (Wukongopteridae) from western Liaoning, China (dinodata.de)
Two emetolite-pterosaur associations from the Late Jurassic of China: showing the first evidence for antiperistalsis in pterosaurs (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Kunpengopterus 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.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex