''Nemicolopterus'' is a genus of

tapejaromorph Tapejaromorpha is a group of pterosaurs within the clade Azhdarchoidea. The fossil remains of tapejaromorphs dated back to the Cretaceous period. The Tapejaromorpha was defined in 2014 by Andres and colleagues. They made Tapejaromorpha the most ...

pterosaur, based on a very small specimen described as the smallest known "adult" pterosaur to date. It lived in the Jehol Biota 120 million years ago.

Discovery and naming

The generic name "Nemicolopterus" comes from the following Greek words: "Nemos" meaning "forest", "ikolos" meaning "dweller", and Latinised "pteron" meaning "wing". The specific name ''crypticus'' is from "kryptos", meaning "hidden". Thus "''Nemicolopterus crypticus''" means "Hidden flying forest dweller".

Description

The type fossil specimen of ''N. crypticus'', catalog number IVPP V-14377, is housed in the collection of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China. The fossil was collected from the Jiufotang Formation, which is of

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

age (120 mya). It was discovered in the Luzhhouou locality of Yaolugou Town, Jianchang County, Huludao City, western

Liaoning Province Liaoning () is a coastal provinces of China, province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and i ...

in northeastern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. It has a wingspan of slightly under 25 centimeters (10 in), making it smaller than all but a few specimens of hatchling pterosaurs. Wang et al. (2008), who originally described the specimen, concluded that it was immature, citing the amount of bone fusion and the ossification of the toes, gastralia, and sternum as indicating that it was a sub-adult rather than a hatchling. However, Darren Naish argued on his popular weblog that, due to the hypothesis that pterosaurs were highly precocial, bone fusion and ossification could have occurred very early in life, and that ''Nemicolopterus'' might in fact be a hatchling individual of the genus ''

Sinopterus ''Sinopterus'' (meaning "Chinese wing") was a genus of tapejarid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang, Liaoning, China. It was first described and named by Wang Xiaolin and Zhou Zhonghe. ...

''. This identification was formally presented in 2021 study, which found that ''Nemicolopterus'' fit into a growth series as a young juvenile or hatchling ''Sinopterus'' hatchling.

Classification

An analysis of pterosaur relationships by Andres and colleagues in 2014 found the specimen in a sister group relationship with "''Sinopterus''" ''gui''. A 2023 revision of ''Sinopterus'' concluded that it was impossible to assign the ''Nemicolopterus'' specimen to either ''Sinopterus'' or the new genus '' Huaxiadraco'', and it was therefore considered an indeterminate sinopterine.

References

{{Portal bar, Paleontology, Cretaceous, China Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of Asia Tapejaromorphs Fossil taxa described in 2008 Taxa named by Alexander Kellner Jiufotang fauna

Discovery and naming

Description

Classification

See also

References