Apr 25 2021 Read 6 Times
An international team of researchers from China, Brazil, UK, Denmark and Japan have described a new Jurassic pterosaur
Kunpengopterus antipollicatus, as having the oldest true opposed thumb - a novel structure previously not known in pterosaurs.
Discovered in the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning, China, the new 160-million year old species dubbed ‘Monkeydactyl’, is a small-bodied darwinopteran pterosaur with an estimated wingspan of 85 cm. Most importantly, the specimen was preserved with an opposed pollex (“thumb”) on both hands.
The research team scanned the fossil of
K. antipollicatus using micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), a technique making use of X-ray to image an object. By studying its forelimb morphology and musculature, they suggest that
Scientists have identified the oldest known flying reptile with an opposed thumb
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Meet the Monkeydactyl - a small flying dinosaur with opposable thumbs that was just discovered in China
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Meet the Monkeydactyl - a small flying dinosaur with opposable thumbs that was discovered in China Apr 15, 2021, 01:06 PM
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Chuang Zhao/ University of Birmingham
Paleontologists have discovered the Monkeydactyl - a flying dinosaur with opposable thumbs.
This is the first time researchers have ever found dinosaurs with thumbs that could grasp objects.
The 160-million-year-old fossil was unearthed in Liaoning, China.
Paleontologists have unearthed the first-of-its-kind fossil of a small flying dinosaur - that has thumbs.
Scientists have dubbed the new Jurassic-period specimen the Monkeydactyl, for its opposable thumbs.
The newly-discovered species of pterosaur was likely a small, tree-dwelling creature with a wingspan of around 33 inches, that closely resembled a pterodactyl.
pterodactyls.
Pterodactylus antiquus was the first pterosaur to be named and identified as a flying reptile, while
Terrordactyl was an awesome 2016 movie where ancient flying reptiles attacked Los Angeles. Now, an international team has uncovered an astounding discovery based on remains found in northeast China. Make way for the amazing
Monkeydactyl, the earliest known opposed thumb flying reptile that lived 160 million years ago.
The
Properly named
Kunpengopterus antipollicatus, the small-sized pterosaur’s fossil was found in a slab of stone in north-east China. With a wingspan around 2.8 feet (85 cm), the opposed thumb flying reptile lived in trees and grasped branches. For a full and detailed description of creature you can read a new paper published in the journal