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Yixianopterus

Say it: yee-SHYAN-op-TER-us

Name means: “wing from Yixian”1

Ate: FishFlying reptilesEarly CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Yixianopterus was a flying reptile that soared over ancient lakes in China about 125 million years ago. It had a long beak with many teeth and probably snatched fish from the water while flying.1 3

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

Lived

126 to 120 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Jingangshan, Liaoning, China3 1

Food

Fish3 1

Wingspan

2.2 m2

estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How wide were its wings?

as long as 4 house cats nose to tail

How big was Yixianopterus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

The only known fossil of Yixianopterus was partly faked before scientists got it. Someone added a fake skull to the real bones.1

Yixianopterus lived in a place with lots of volcanic activity. Many of the animals found with it were fish and insects that lived in the water.1

Its front teeth were longer and thinner than the rest of its teeth. This helped it grab slippery fish.1

Scientists are not sure which group Yixianopterus belongs to. It has been placed in Lonchodectidae, Ornithocheiridae, and Istiodactyliformes at different times.1

The fossil includes part of a foot and a wing bone. The foot bones were very short compared to the leg bone, a clue that it was a good flier.1

AI-made picture of Yixianopterus — An AI-made picture of how Yixianopterus 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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For dino experts

Scientific name: Yixianopterus
Named by: Lü et al. 20063
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Lonchodectidae3
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea3
Age of the rocks: 126 to 120 million years (Barremian / Aptian)3
Rock formations: Yixian3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Yixianopterus was named in 2006 by Lü Junchang and colleagues. The single fossil was found in the Jingangshan layer of the Yixian Formation in Liaoning, China.1 3
Still debated: Scientists still debate which family Yixianopterus belongs to. Some say it is a lonchodectid, others say it is an ornithocheirid or a basal istiodactyliform.1

Where the facts come from

Yixianopterus (en.wikipedia.org)
Yixianopterus jingangshanensis | Pterosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Yixianopterus 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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