Mini-Fossils: Flying Reptile & Island Dino
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 12th, 2008
Perhaps they all owned iPods Nanos? Small cute fossil finds pointing to pygmy versions of extinct forms appear to be in the news lately. Being tiny goes back a long way.
A new fossil species of flying reptile with a wingspan of less than a foot across (30cm) has been discovered in China. The nearly complete skeleton was unearthed in fossil beds from northeastern China.
One of the smallest pterosaurs ever discovered, the new species has been named Nemicolopterus crypticus, which means “hidden flying forest dweller.”
Read more here.
Meanwhile, the discovery of a small dinosaur off the coast of the United Kingdom has been in the news lately too. The findings have shaken up old thoughts about the Bristol dinosaur, Thecodontosaurus. It has now been shown to live on subtropical islands around Bristol, instead of in a desert on the mainland as previously thought.
According to media accounts, the new research could explain the dinosaur’s small size of about 6 ft (2 m) in relation to its giant 30 ft (10 m) mainland equivalent, Plateosaurus. Like many species trapped on small islands, such as the ‘hobbit’ Homo floresiensis of Flores and pygmy elephants on Malta, the Thecodontosaurus may have been subjected to island dwarfing.
Read more here.
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Thanks Loren, the dinosaur era fascinates me. What a neat looking little pterosaur. I have also read of there being dwarf mammoths on islands in the northern hemisphere. I believe they died out only eight to ten thousand years ago. Very Interesting
4,000 years ago for the Wrangel Island dwarf mammoths
Wow, thanks for the info. sschaper.