Always hanging upside down on a tree like a bat, this is definitely the strangest ancient flying lizard ever existed in China.

Many people compare pterosaurs to modern bats and think they have the same behavior.

Many people believe that pterosaurs will also have strong claws to make them can hang upside down in the tree, but in reality that is not true, because through fossil samples of the species. The pterosaurs were discovered, we know that their limbs and toes protrude in the same direction and make their claws incapable of being held, so those claws are not capable of supporting. for hanging upside down in a tree like a modern bat.

But not all, archaeologists in China recently discovered a new species of pterosaur that lived in the Mesozoic era and went against the view we still know about lizards. ancient flight. They are called Vesperopterylus.

Jehol Biota encompasses all living things - the ecosystem - of northeast China between 133 and 120 million years ago and is also the most famous source of Chinese paleontological fossils because it is not here. Only a large number of furry dinosaurs were found, but many new species of pterosaurs were found.

In the fossils of the Mesozoic era (Mesozoic) in Lamadong Town, Jianchang District, Liaoning Province, paleontologists have found a stone tablet containing animal fossils remains intact. When they looked at this fossil, they discovered that the animal had an unusually long elongated foot bone and could identify it as a fossil of an ancient pterizard.

Fossils found from Lamadong town have attracted the attention of many paleontologists because of their special characteristics. A team of researchers from the Beijing Natural Museum and the Geological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Geoscience have studied the pterizard fossils on shale.

In 2017, paleontologists in China named the pterizard sunset. The research paper was published in the "Special issue of the London Geological Society" published in 2017. The article is titled "The new pterosaur has a frog mouth from Jianchang, Liaoning Province, China." Quốc ".

In this paper, paleontologists named the pterosaur Vesperopterylus, with the full name Vesperopterylus lamadongensis.

The reason why it is called the sunset pterizard is because researchers think that it will go for food at dusk like a bat. Direct evidence suggests that they and the bats have similar habits that come from their hind legs.

The pterosaur has four fingers on its hind legs, with the thumb and other three fingers growing in different directions and capable of holding. This is the first species in the pterizard family to have such ability.

Imagine: sunset pterizard groups use their hind legs to hang their bodies on tree branches or a stone wall. When the lizards fly out to get food, they will likely act in large groups together like bats, and the sight must be spectacular!

Sunset pterizard is a very small pterizard, its body length is 50 cm and its wingspan is less than 1 meter. These pterosaurs are unique in that they can hold claws clinging together and have a short, curved tail. In addition to these features, they are more distinctive than other pterosaurs in that their skull is very round as well as has a flat head and its mouth is full of small, pointed teeth. Sunset pterodactyl has a short neck and body, but its forelegs are extremely developed compared to the body.

Paleontologists believe that with such a body size, their main food is insects. In addition, Chinese archaeologists have discovered a species of pterosaur with similar skull structure, but about the legs and ability to hang up like the bat bat, so far, Vesperopterylus is still the only species.