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Tiny Pterodactyl Fossil Found
LiveScience ^
| 11 February 2008 01:40 pm ET
| Jeanna Bryner
Posted on 02/12/2008 12:54:52 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
A pterodactyl so small that you could hold it in your hand glided in forest canopies in northeastern China where it feasted on insects 120 million years ago, new fossil remains suggest. Paleontologists discovered the nearly complete skeleton of a toothless mini-pterodactyl, called Nemicolopterus crypticus, in the western part of China's Liaoning Province.
With a wingspan of nearly 10 inches (25 centimeters), this half-pint represents the smallest pterosaur, a group of winged reptiles that shared a common ancestor with dinosaurs and ruled the skies during the Jurassic period (206 million to 144 million years ago) and the subsequent Cretaceous period, which ended 65 million years ago.
"The animal is a very young animal, but it's not a hatchling that just left the egg," said researcher Alexander Kellner of the Department of Geology and Paleontology at the Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. "Therefore it is the smallest pterosaur ever found."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: paleontology; pterodactyl
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I had to excerpt, so you'll have to follow the link to read the whole story.
To: Paleo Conservative
2
posted on
02/12/2008 12:57:29 PM PST
by
Coyoteman
(Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
To: Paleo Conservative
Cool! Where can I get one?
To: Paleo Conservative
4
posted on
02/12/2008 12:58:01 PM PST
by
T. Buzzard Trueblood
(Crawling over ground glass, holding my nose.)
To: SunkenCiv; blam
To: Paleo Conservative
I wonder what it tasted like... Chicken maybe? Or maybe iguana... ;-) j/k
6
posted on
02/12/2008 1:02:58 PM PST
by
coconutt2000
(NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
To: coconutt2000
7
posted on
02/12/2008 1:13:34 PM PST
by
massgopguy
(I owe everything to George Bailey)
To: Paleo Conservative
This too weird! I just read this in a email from my nerdy BiL...
To: Paleo Conservative
How darling! What a little cutie. I want one.
9
posted on
02/12/2008 1:22:30 PM PST
by
3AngelaD
(They screwed up their own countries so bad they had to leave, and now they're here screwing up ours)
To: Paleo Conservative
10
posted on
02/12/2008 1:24:56 PM PST
by
Mygirlsmom
(Clowns to the left of me, fakers to the right-here I am-what's a Right Winger to do?)
To: Paleo Conservative
Here's another image of what they think these things looked like.
To: Mygirlsmom
To: Paleo Conservative
Ptiny Pterodactyl - Pterrific!
To: Paleo Conservative
Awwww, some on, scientists; if you find this ones’ DNA preserved in a fly preserved in amber (or whatever...)- try to bring him back! So cute.
14
posted on
02/12/2008 2:13:40 PM PST
by
Verloona Ti
(And I know you have Mammoth DNA.Splice their genes with elephants' & bring 'em back! Please!)
To: pcottraux
If any dinosaur had a chance of surviving the big asteroid it would have been this one. It had small body mass, it could fly, it ate insects.
Have there been any intriguing reports?
15
posted on
02/12/2008 2:21:37 PM PST
by
Kevmo
(SURFRINAGWIASS : Shut Up RINOs. Free Republic is not a GOP Website. It’s a SOCON Site.)
To: Kevmo; Angelas; presidio9; Idisarthur; Hegemony Cricket; A knight without armor; new cruelty; ...
If any dinosaur had a chance of surviving the big asteroid it would have been this one. It had small body mass, it could fly, it ate insects.Hmmmm....never thought of that before...
16
posted on
02/12/2008 2:26:52 PM PST
by
pcottraux
(I can't tell the difference between Carl Cameron, Chris Wallace, or Bill McCuddy.)
To: Paleo Conservative
Crows gr gr gr gr gr gr gr gr gr gr gr gr gr grgr gr gr gr gr gr grgr gr gr gr gr gr grgr gr gr gr gr gr grgr gr gr gr gr gr grgr gr gr gr gr gr grgr gr gr gr gr gr grgr gr gr gr gr gr grgr gr gr gr gr gr grgr gr gr gr gr gr gr
grandparent???
17
posted on
02/12/2008 2:27:23 PM PST
by
goodnesswins
(We are not going to let McCain go all the way, when we’ve just had a FIRST date!)
To: Kevmo; pcottraux
If any dinosaur had a chance of surviving the big asteroid it would have been this one. It had small body mass, it could fly, it ate insects. It's not a dinosaur; it's a pterosaur. It lived about 55 million years prior to the KT extinction event. There is a tendency for organisms to get larger over time unless there is some evolutionry pressure to select for a small size. Perhaps all the remaining pterosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous were too large to survive.
To: Paleo Conservative; All
Pterodactyl thread’s over an hour old and not a SINGLE Hillary joke?!
You folks are slackin’.
19
posted on
02/12/2008 2:35:36 PM PST
by
RandallFlagg
(Satisfaction was my sin)
To: Paleo Conservative
It's not a dinosaur; it's a pterosaur.Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe.
20
posted on
02/12/2008 2:37:37 PM PST
by
pcottraux
(I can't tell the difference between Carl Cameron, Chris Wallace, or Bill McCuddy.)
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