An international team of paleontologists has described a new species of flying reptile that lived in what is now China during the Cretaceous period, about 120 millions years ago, and named it after the flying dragon-like creatures from director James Cameron’s blockbuster 2009 movie Avatar.
Ikrandraco avatar had about 40 pairs of teeth and a throat pouch for catching fish. Image credit: © Chuang Zhao.
Two specimens of the new pterosaur, Ikrandraco avatar (means ‘Ikran dragon from Avatar’), were uncovered from the Jiufotang Formation in Chaoyang, Liaoning province, northeastern China.
According to the paleontologists, Ikrandraco had a wingspan of about 2.5 meters. It possessed a throat pouch similar to that of a pelican and probably fed on small fish from freshwater lakes, flying low over the water and catching prey by skimming its lower jaw into the water, and may have stored the fish in the pouch.
Nearly complete skeleton of Ikrandraco avatar. Scale bar – 5 cm. Image credit: Xiaolin Wang et al.
“Ikrandraco didn’t have a crest on the top of its elongated head as many pterosaurs did. Behind the lower jaw crest was a hook-like structure that appears to have been the anchor point for the throat pouch,” said Dr Alexander Kellner of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who is the senior author of a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports.
The pterosaur had small teeth and boasted an unusual blade-like crest on its lower jaw similar to that of dragons from the Avatar movie.
“It lived in a warm region teeming with life, with feathered dinosaurs, birds, mammals, frogs, turtles and other animals along with a variety of trees and other plants,” said lead author Dr Xiaolin Wang of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China.
_____
Xiaolin Wang et al. 2014. An Early Cretaceous pterosaur with an unusual mandibular crest from China and a potential novel feeding strategy. Scientific Reports 4, article number: 6329; doi: 10.1038/srep06329
