Dr. Xiaolin Wang and his colleagues of Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently described a new long-tailed pterosaur, Wukongopterus lii gen. et sp. nov, an almost complete skeleton (IVPP V15113) representing an individual with an estimated wing span of 730 mm. The specimen was discovered in strata that possibly represent the Daohugou Bed (or Daohugou Formation) at Linglongta, Jianchang, Liaoning Province, China. Wukongopterus lii is a non-pterodactyloid pterosaur diagnosed by the first two pairs of premaxillary teeth protruding beyond the dentary, elongated cervical vertebrae (convergent with Pterodactyloidea), and a strongly curved second pedal phalanx of the fifth toe. The specimen further has a broken tibia that indicates an injury occurred while the individual was still alive. Taphonomic aspects provide indirect evidence of an uropatagium, supporting the general hypothesis that at least all non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs show a membrane between the hind limbs. A phylogenetic analysis including most non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs shows that Wukongopterus lii gen. et sp. nov. lies outside the Novialoidea, being cladistically more primitive than the Rhamphorhynchidae and Campylognathoides. This analysis differs from previous studies and indicates that more work is needed before a stable picture of non-pterodactyloid pterosaur relationships is achieved.

 Holotype of Wukongopterus lii gen. et sp. nov (IVPPV15113, Wang et al)

This specimen was unearthed from a new locality (Linglongta, JianchangCounty, HuludaoCity) of western Liaoning, China. There is considerable controversy regarding those strata, with local geological map considering the fossil-bearing-bed the Lanqi Formation, which is equivalent to the Tiaojishan Formation. Based on sedimentological and field data, it is likely that the outcrop where the specimen was collected belongs to the Daohugou Bed (Formation) rather thanTiaojishan Formation (X.Wang,unpublished data). Therefore, along with Pterorhynchus wellnhoferi, the new find reported here (Wukongopterus lii gen. et sp. nov.) is potentially the youngest long-tailed nonpterodactyloid known to date, showing that those primitive pterosaurs were more diverse towards the end of the Jurassic perhaps entering in the Cretaceous. It further highlights the importance of the Jehol Biota that is starting to shape our understanding of the evolutionary history of this group of volant archosaurs.

The original paper was published in Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (81(4): 793-812