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China - Source: ONE News
A fossil found in China of a pterosaur, the earliest known
flying vertebrate, shows the creatures had unique and complex wing
fibres that enabled them to fly with the precision and control of
birds, researchers said.
The finding by a team of Brazilian, German, Chinese and British
researchers backs up the theory that the reptiles that dominated
the skies from up to 220 million years ago, also known as
pterodactyls, were not just basic gliders.
A new technique that involves shining ultra-violet rays on the
well-preserved fossil found in Inner Mongolia brought out a
detailed view of the tissue in the pterosaur's wing, researchers
said at a news conference in Rio de Janeiro.
They also found hair-like fibres different from any other animal's
that covered the creature's body and part of its wings. This could
have helped the animals control their body temperature and shows
they were warm-blooded, said Alexander Kellner, a palaeontologist
at Brazil's National Museum in Rio.
"They are different from other furs we find in mammals and they
provide us another hint that these animals were able to control
their body temperature, they were hot-blooded animals," said
Alexander Kellner, a palaeontologist at Brazil's National Museum in
Rio.
"This is of great importance to understanding how the pterosaur
functioned."
The UV analysis of the fossil showed that the creature had several
layers of fibres to control its wings, rather than one as
previously thought, suggesting it had more stability and control
over its flight than flying animals such as bats.
The pterosaurs, which ranged in size from small up to the largest
creatures known to have flown, went extinct about 65 million years
ago, around the same time as the mass extinction of dinosaurs.
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