Fossils of winged lizards found in China

Fossils of two previously unknown species of pterosaurs or winged lizards have been discovered by Chinese and Brazilian scientists in northeast China's Liaoning province, a report said on Thursday.

It is believed that the flying reptiles could have travelled and communicated with their peers between today's France,
Germany or Britain and East Asia more than 120 million years ago, said the scientists report in the latest issue of Nature
magazine.

The new findings will contribute greatly to a more comprehensive understanding of pterosaurs, which dominated the earth's sky for 160 million years, a scientist from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wang Xiaolin said.

The size of pterosaurs ranged from several centimetres to more than 130 centimetres. Their wings were covered by a leathery membrane stretching between the body, the top of the legs and their elongated fourth fingers.

The scientists found one of the two new pterosaurs, the Feilongus Youngi or Young's flying dragon was closely related to a family of pterosaurs found in southern France and Germany.

The flying dragon is now recognised as the largest known member of the group and the first ever found in western Liaoning, Wang was quoted by China Daily.

The area is also known to many as the Jehol Biota. Volcanic eruptions about 130 million years ago produced the well-preserved fossils found there. Many scientists believe it is the evolutionary cradle of many creatures alive today.     

The other new pterosaur species, Nurhachius ignaciobritoi, was named after the legendary Manchu chieftain Nurhachius who founded the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and famous Brazilian paleontologist Ignacio M Brito.     

"This unexpected mixture of different pterosaur groups indicates a very complex evolutionary history of pterosaurs in general, which is just beginning to be deciphered," the authors wrote in the Nature magazine.

Over the past few decades, scientists have found many things in the Jehol Biota ranging from the first beaked bird to some of the most primitive flowering plants and fruit, lizards, turtles and reptiles.