News Paleontology

Not your typical pterosaur

Beautifully preserved fossil displays novel wing feature

By Janet Raloff

- More than 2 years ago

For a decade, scientists largely ignored a fossil of a juvenile, late-Jurassic flying reptile that’s just 14 centimeters long. It appeared to be just another of some 120 specimens of the genus Rhamphorhynchus excavated at Germany’s famed Solnhofen limestone beds.

This 14-centimeter-long fossil of a flying reptile has been given its own genus, dubbed Bellubrunnus, to acknowledge the curved wing tips that distinguish it from other known flying vertebrates.