Feilongus
Name: Feilongus
(Flying Dragon).
Phonetic: Fei-long-us.
Named By: Wang, Kellner, Zhou, and Campos -
2005.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea,Ornithocheiroidea, Boreopteridae.
Species: F. youngi (type).
Type: Carnivore/Piscivore.
Size: Wingspan estimated to have been 2.4
meters. Skull is 39-40 centimetres long.
Known locations: China, Liaoning Province,
Yixian Formation.
Time period: Barremian to Aptian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial remains of adult and
subadult
individuals.
The
only
known example of the pterosaur
Feilongus is incomplete and has
been damaged in the
fossilisation process. Only the skull, mandible and parts of the
braincase are preserved. What can be gleamed from the fossil is that
Feilongus had a large overbite with the upper jaw
extended up to 2.7
centimetres beyond the tip of the lower jaw. The teeth were needle
like, sharp and confined to the front third of the jaws.
There
were also two crests,
with one in the middle of the snout rising up by a small amount,
taking up roughly a third of the length in skull proportion. The
second rose from the back of the head in a short and rounded
fashion. It has been speculated that it may have been the support for
a larger crest that had not been preserved, either through removal or
inability to fossilise because of soft tissue.
The
top of the skull of
Feilongus is curved in a concave manner, resulting
in a thin snout
that steadily rises up in thickness towards the eyes. It is also
thought that the holotype specimen is actually of a sub adult.
Further reading
- Pterosaur diversity and faunal turnover in Cretaceous terrestrial
ecosystems in China. - Nature 437 (7060): 875–879. - Xiaolin Wang,
Alexander W.A. Kellner, Zhou Zhonghe & Diogenes de Almeida
Campos - 2005.
- New Material of Feilongus (Reptilia: Pterosauria)
from the Lower
Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Western Liaoning. - Acta Geologica
Sinica-English Edition. 88 (1): 13–7. - X. Wang, C. Shen, C. Gao
& K. Jin - 2014.
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