Dino card No. 1574 of 2,027

Samrukia

Say it: sam-ROO-kee-uh

Name means: “Samruk, the magical bird from Kazakh folklore”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Samrukia was a huge flying reptile that lived in what is now Kazakhstan. It had a very long jaw, and scientists first thought it was a giant bird. Now they think it was a pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived at the same time as dinosaurs.1

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

Lived

86 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Akkurgan, Kyzylorda District, southern Kazakhstan3 2

Food

Fish3

Wingspan

4 m1

if it could fly

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

wings as wide as 2 bicycles in a row

How big was Samrukia compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Samrukia is known only from a single lower jaw bone, which is more than 275 millimetres long.2

When first discovered, scientists thought Samrukia was a giant bird, but later studies showed it was a pterosaur.1

Samrukia lived about 84 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period.1

If Samrukia could fly, its wingspan might have been about 4 metres (13 feet). If it was flightless, it might have been 2 to 3 metres (6.6 to 9.8 feet) tall.1

The jaw of Samrukia has no teeth, so it probably had a beak.2

Samrukia is named after Samruk, a magical bird from Kazakh mythology.1

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

?Was Samrukia a dinosaur?

No, Samrukia was a pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived at the same time as dinosaurs. It is not a dinosaur.1

?How big was Samrukia?

If it could fly, its wingspan might have been about 4 metres (13 feet). If it was flightless, it might have been 2 to 3 metres (6.6 to 9.8 feet) tall.1

?What did Samrukia eat?

Samrukia had no teeth in its lower jaw, so it probably had a beak. Scientists think it may have eaten fish or other small animals, but no one knows for sure.1

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Myth buster

Myth: Samrukia was a giant bird.

Truth: Scientists now agree that Samrukia was a pterosaur, not a bird. The jaw bone has features that are only found in pterosaurs.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Samrukia
Named by: Naish et al. 20123
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Pterosauria3
Classification: Pterosauria3
Age of the rocks: 86 to 72 million years (Santonian / Campanian)3
Rock formations: Bostobe3
Countries: Kazakhstan3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Samrukia was named in 2012 by Darren Naish and his team. The only fossil, a lower jaw, was found in the Bostobynskaya Formation in Kazakhstan.1 3
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Samrukia could fly or if it was flightless, because only its jaw has been found.1

Where the facts come from

Samrukia (en.wikipedia.org)
untitled (darrennaish.wordpress.com)
Samrukia 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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