Dino card No. 1051 of 2,027

Liaoxipterus

Say it: lee-OW-zip-TEER-us

Name means: “Liaoxi wing”1

Ate: InsectsFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Liaoxipterus was a flying reptile that lived about 120 million years ago. It had a short jaw with small, peg-like teeth, and it may have used its long tongue to catch insects, just like a chameleon!1 2

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

Liaoning Province, China1 3

Food

Insects1 2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Liaoxipterus was the first istiodactylid pterosaur found in China, but scientists first thought it was a different kind of pterosaur called a ctenochasmatid.2

Its lower jaw was about 161 millimetres long, which is shorter than a ruler, and it had about 26 teeth in total.1 2

The hyoid bone in its throat was Y-shaped and very long, similar to a chameleon's, which helps the tongue shoot out to catch prey.2

Liaoxipterus lived alongside other pterosaurs like Nurhachius and Istiodactylus sinensis in the same ancient environment.2

Its teeth were all the same shape, with roots longer than the crowns, and they were flattened from side to side.2

Scientists think the wide tip of its lower jaw might have been different from other pterosaurs because of sexual differences, like males and females looking different.2

AI-made picture of Liaoxipterus — An AI-made picture of how Liaoxipterus 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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Myth buster

Myth: Liaoxipterus was a dinosaur.

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

For dino experts

Scientific name: Liaoxipterus
Named by: Dong and Lü 20053
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Istiodactylidae3
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: Liaoxipterus was named by Dong Zhiming and Lü Junchang in 2005, based on a nearly complete lower jaw found in the Jiufotang Formation in China.1 3
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether Liaoxipterus is the same as another pterosaur called Nurhachius, because some studies say they are different, while others suggest they might be the same.1 2

Where the facts come from

Liaoxipterus (en.wikipedia.org)
Restudy of Liaoxipterus (Istiodactylidae: Pterosauria), with comments on the Chinese istiodactylid pterosaurs (epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de)
Liaoxipterus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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