''Nemicolopterus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

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 Pterosaurs (; from Greek ''pteron'' and ''sauros'', meaning "wing lizard") is an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 to ...

, 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 Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...

name "Nemicolopterus" comes from the following Greek words: "Nemos" meaning "forest", "ikolos" meaning "dweller", and Latinised "pteron" meaning "wing". The

specific Specific may refer to: * Specificity (disambiguation) * Specific, a cure or therapy for a specific illness Law * Specific deterrence, focussed on an individual * Specific finding, intermediate verdict used by a jury in determining the fina ...

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 The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

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 Ossification (also called osteogenesis or bone mineralization) in bone remodeling is the process of laying down new bone material by cells named osteoblasts. It is synonymous with bone tissue formation. There are two processes resulting in t ...

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