Image of the Day: Bat-like Wings

Paleontologists find a fossil of a dinosaur, Ambopteryx longibrachium, with membranous wings, in China.

Written byChia-Yi Hou
| 1 min read
theropod Ambopteryx longibrachium new dinosaur species paleontology china wings

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ABOVE: 3-D reconstruction of Ambopteryx longibrachium
MIN WANG/INSTITUTE OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY AND PALEOANTHROPOLOGY, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Scientists report in Nature the discovery of a fossil of a theropod, a type of dinosaur that has hollow bones and three-toed limbs. Ambopteryx longibrachium had bat-like wings and lived 163 million years ago in China. The authors write that this fossil is the first evidence of membranous wings in a theropod.

M. Wang et al., “A new Jurassic scansoriopterygid and the loss of membranous wings in theropod dinosaurs,” Nature, doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1137-z, 2019.

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