Nurhachius
Nurhachius was a flying reptile that lived about 120 million years ago. It had a long skull full of sharp, triangular teeth, and it probably swooped over lakes to catch fish. It was not a dinosaur, but a pterosaur, a close cousin of dinosaurs.1
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Fun facts
Nurhachius had a very long skull, about 33 centimetres long, and its skull had a huge opening that took up about 58% of the skull length.1
It had 54 teeth in total: 14 on each side of the upper jaw and 13 on each side of the lower jaw. These teeth were flat and triangular, similar to those of the European pterosaur Istiodactylus.1
Nurhachius was one of the first pterosaurs from its group, the istiodactylids, to be found in China. Before that, this group was only known from Europe.2
The fossil skeleton of Nurhachius shows it was a subadult, meaning it was not fully grown when it died. Its bones show that some parts were still growing.1
Nurhachius lived in an area where many birds also lived, like Confuciusornis. Scientists think birds were more common in inland areas, while pterosaurs like Nurhachius were more common near the coast.2
The name Nurhachius honors Nurhachi, the founder of the Qing Dynasty in China. The species name ignaciobritoi honors a Brazilian paleontologist named Ignacio M. Brito.1
Most asked questions about Nurhachius
?How big was Nurhachius?
Nurhachius had a wingspan of about 2.4 to 2.5 metres (7.9 to 8.2 feet) and weighed around 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds).3
?What did Nurhachius eat?
Nurhachius probably ate fish. It had sharp, triangular teeth and a long skull, which helped it swoop over lakes to catch fish.3
?Is Nurhachius a dinosaur?
No, Nurhachius is not a dinosaur. It is a pterosaur, which is a flying reptile and a close cousin of dinosaurs.3
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Myth buster
Myth: Some people think Nurhachius was a dinosaur because it lived with dinosaurs.
Truth: Nurhachius was a pterosaur, a flying reptile that is not a dinosaur. Pterosaurs are a separate group of reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs.4
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Nurhachius
- Named by
- Wang et al. 20054
- Group
- Flying reptiles
- Family / clade
- Ornithocheiroidea4
- Classification
- Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea4
- Age of the rocks
- 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)4
- Rock formations
- Jiufotang4
- Countries
- China4
- Fossil records
- 3 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- Nurhachius was named in 2005 by a team of scientists including Wang Xiaolin, Alexander Kellner, Zhou Zhonghe, and Diogenes de Almeida Campos. The first fossil was found in the Jiufotang Formation in Liaoning, China.41
- Still debated
- Scientists are still debating how Nurhachius is related to other pterosaurs. Some think it is closely related to Istiodactylus, but others are not sure because the fossil is incomplete.1
Where the facts come from
- LETTERS (ivpp.cas.cn)
- Pterosaur diversity and faunal turnover in Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems in China | Nature (nature.com)
- Nurhachius (en.wikipedia.org)
- Nurhachius in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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