Like a bat out of the Jurassic , a 163 - million - yr - old aeriform dinosaur has been discovered whose wings had more in common with innovative bats than any fowl . It prove the one previous identification of a bat - like dinosaur was not an erroneous belief as some have argued .
The prevailing flee creatures of the Jurrasic and Cretaceous were the pterosaurs , such as pterodactyl . Contrary to common perception , these were not dinosaurs . Nevertheless , some dinosaur sure as shooting did take to the sky , most famouslyArcheopteryx , and we now roll in the hay modern bird are members of the Dinosauria clade , some better disguised thanothers .
A lesser - know good example of flying dinosaur were the scansoriopterygids , that matter just 200 g ( 7 ounce ) and in all probability lived in Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . Four years ago a new dodo that had a skull resemble the other scansoriopterygids enough to be placed among them , but had a recollective , pointed wrist bone that support a membrane wing , was declare . That tool was namedYi qi , and it now has company .
Dr Min Wangof the Chinese Academy of Sciences has receive a new scansoriopterygid , which he has namedAmbopteryx longibrachium , and it helps us understand the origins of flight of stairs .
Ambopteryx was establish near Lingyuan City , China . It had forelimb bone that were blanket than Yi ’s and a curt tail that miss a clear changeover point and end with fused vertebrate . The ratios between the lengths of several of its bones were unlike other be intimate dinosaurs .
Like modernistic doll , Ambopteryx ingested stones to break up its food for thought , and some of these , along with possible venter subject matter , can still be ascertain in the fogey , leading Wang to conclude it was omnivorous .
The reason these discoveries are so exciting , Wang explain inNature , is it seems Ambopteryx was a trailblazer of the air . “ The former fossil record of flying reptile and bats are sparse , ” Wang and co - authors write . However , Ambopteryx and Yi were apparently novel to this whole airborne thing . We do n’t yet know if they were capable of true flight , or if they just glide from tree to tree likesugar glidersorflying squirrels .
The scansoriopterygids and bird were fairly close relatives , having evolved prerequisites for flight before diverge , and then finding dissimilar paths into the air . The skinny conjunction in time and space between these scansoriopterygids , their feathered relatives with more birdlike wings , and the first rightful shuttlecock picture that “ Close to the origin of flight , dinosaur tight related to birds were try out with a diversity of wing structures , ” the authors remark .
In the death feathers and the bird wing turn out the more successful way to overlook available niches , and Ambopteryx and its congeneric vanished from the fossil record book . However , the fact the unrelated bats and flying reptile used alike means to reach for the skies prove their approach also had merit .
