Ambopteryx
Name:
Ambopteryx
(both wing).
Phonetic: Am-bop-the-riks.
Named By: Min Wang, Jingmai K. O’Connor, Xing
Xu & Zhonghe Zhou - 2019.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Scansoriopterygidae.
Species: A. longibrachium
(type).
Diet: Omnivore?
Size: Body estimated to be about 32 centimetres
long. Possibly longer in older adults, though probably not by much
if at all.
Known locations: China, Liaoning - Haifanggou
Formation.
Time period: Oxfordian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Almost complete individuals
with soft tissue impressions. Individual is possibly a subadult.
Ambopteryx
is a genus of scansoriopterygid dinosaur that lived in Asia during the
late Jurassic. The name Ambopteryx means 'both
wing’ and this is
a reference to the observations that fossil impressions with the
holotype skeleton show that Ambopteryx was
feathered, but then had
bat-like membranous wings which were not feathered as well. This is
the second time that such a 'wing’ structure has been seen in such
dinosaurs, the genus Yi
has also been reconstructed with bat-like
membranes on the arms.
Ambopteryx
was a very small dinosaur, the holotype individual measuring
thirty-two centimetres from snout to tip pygostyle, though long tail
feathers also grew from the tail, giving the impression that
Ambopteryx was longer than it actually was. Ambopteryx
also preserves
evidence of gastroliths and small bones within what would have been the
stomach/gut area of the living animal. These show that Ambopteryx
may have been omnivorous, an important discovery as before this
scansoriopterygid dinosaurs were thought to be more exclusively
omnivorous.
Further reading
- A new Jurassic
scansoriopterygid and the loss of membranous wings in theropod
dinosaurs. - Nature. 569 (7755): 256–259. - Min
Wang, Jingmai K. O’Connor, Xing Xu & Zhonghe Zhou -
2019.
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