Discover Top Posts Tagged with #ambopteryx

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Hey bestie I'm bored as fuck, could you please drop the most autistic possible info dump about ambopteryx on my unsuspecting ass? I mean everything you know or even think about this creature

Okok wait yes

We don't know that much about it bc there's only one known fossil afaik but it's v cool.

It was discovered in China in 2017 and the paper on it was published in 2019 by Min Wang et al. It's the slightly lesser-known cousin of Yi qi, which was described in 2015.

The reason these 2 are special is because they're the only 2 animals ever found to have both feathers and a membrane for flight. (Pterosaurs had proto-feathers, not actual feathers)

I do have the wikipedia page open for reference just in case so I'm not wrong but it was from the Late Jurassic, the Oxfordian stage - the start of the Late Jurassic Epoch. This means it was alive about 163mya (mya=million years ago)

The holotype specimen (the "single physical example of an organism that was used when the species was formally described", as pulled from wikipedia) was either a sub-adult or an adult, meaning that it would have much more growing to do if it lived, if any, that is. This specimen was estimated at just 32cm long and 306g in mass, though I imagine that is without the tail feathers(←? unsure of the actual name atm) as they seem to have been quite long.

One reason it's so short is bc it didn't have a bony tail, it had a pygostyle which is like what modern birds have, a fleshy protrusion. Since its "tail was just, like, feathers, it wasn't counted in its overall length.

It was also quite well preserved. In the one, almost fully complete, fossil we have of it, there's a small brown film preserved which was its wing membrane! :] In the fossil, there's even feathers preserved, it's so cool.

Ambopteryx is in the family Scansoriopterygidae, which may've been a part of Paraves, the group that also includes Dromaeosauridae (raptors), Troodontidae (similar to raptors), and Avialae (birds). Scansoriopterygids were previously believed to have used their long thin finger for burrowing for insects like aye-ayes but Yi qi and Ambopteryx seem to have fully disproven this, as the finger would've, in fact, supported the membrane and had limited mobility.

It had a pretty blunt head and beak. Despite this beak, it still had teeth. Its forelimbs were apparently 1.3 times longer than its hindlimbs.

Ambopteryx's abdomen waw apparently found to contain a few gastroliths (stomach rocks for grinding food, common in dinosaurs) and some large bone fragments. These probable stomach contents and their teeth suggest an omnivorous diet, suggested by Ambopteryx itself 😎

I'm currently reading a paper on foot pads in theropod dinosaurs which came up when I searched for Ambopteryx so I'll reblog this later if it mentions anything on Ambopteryx.

As for what I think, I think it was awesome hell yeag

(credits for the art in the alt text)

#posting postily #asks #ambopteryx #ambopteryx my beloved #ambopteryx appreciation post #hound woman

Another sketch brought to you by #paleostream

A freshly hatched Ambopteryx climbs out of its nest, the parent is not impressed.

#paleoart #sciart #paleostream #ambopteryx #palaeoblr #dinosaur #jurassic #bat

Day 41

Amatsu from Monster Hunter by Ambopteryx

#flight rising #fr #fr fandragon #fr undertide #monster hunter #amatsu #characters #Ambopteryx #animals #fav

Round Three: Ambopteryx vs Caihong

Ambopteryx longibrachium

Artwork by Gabriel Ugueto, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Name meaning: Both wings with long arms

Time: 163 million years ago (Callovian stage of the Middle Jurassic)

Location: Haifanggou Formation, China

Look, evolution has done a lot of weird stuff to dinosaurs. It put penguins underwater, and did whatever the hall mamenchisaurid necks are, and game lambeosaurs a built-in face trumpet. But I would argue there is one group that represents dinosaur evolution at its most unhinged, and that is scansoropterygidae.

Scansoriopterygids were generally considered “weird little tree dinosaurs” in the 2000s, with long fingers to pick grubs out of bark or something. Then Yi qi swept along in 2015 and revealed that those long fingers were actually supporting membranous bat wings. With an extra bony rod (the “styliform element”) sticking out of the wrist to help support it, because well if you’re a dinosaur evolving bat wings why bother being normal about it after that? Although really, the dinosaurs did it first so bats actually have dinosaur wings.

Yi was sensational, but it was also extremely weird and completely unique. Even other scansoriopterygids didn’t have wing membranes, so the whole bat thing was a bit up in the air. Or not up in the air, as the case may be. But then along comes Ambopteryx, published in 2019, packing another set of skin wings, and the vindication of Yi is complete!

Ambopteryx preserves a styliform element and wing membrane, as well as a thick coat of feathers, and honestly out of a whole selection of dinosaurs I think these might be some of the most huggable in the lot. Obviously this whole wing membrane thing didn’t end up working out for them long term, but Ambopteryx is part of an incredible lineage that challenged what we thought was possible for dinosaurs!

Caihong juji

Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs

Name meaning: Rainbow with big crest

Time: 161 million years old (Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic)

Location: Tiaojishan Formation, China

It’s always a special treat to hear the announcement of a dinosaur with known colours, because it gives the most direct impression of how truly stunning these animals would have been to witness in real life. And Caihong might just be the most spectacular of them all so far, described in 2018 from an immaculate full-body fossil that preserves detailed feathers! Caihong’s feathers are longer than some other floofy dinosaurs, and would have had the appearance of a luxurious mane along its neck. Not only that, the fossil preserves feather microstructures that in life would have made this dinosaur gloriously iridescent!

Now iridescent dinosaurs aren’t new, Microraptor has been decked out in fabulous starling-esque plumage for a while now, but Caihong absolutely takes it to the next level. Its whole body was covered in iridescent black, including the enormous tail, but the real star of the show are the platelet-like melanosomes found on the head, neck, and the base of the tail. Different from the usual iridescent melanosomes, the structure of these tiny organelles reflects brilliantly iridescent colours, like those on the heads of hummingbirds and particularly the bright purple feathers on the necks of the trumpeter family. Caihong would have put on an absolutely dazzling jewel-toned display in the treetops or on the forest floor of prehistoric China!

Ambopteryx or Caihong?

Ambopteryx

Caihong

Voting ended onMar 23, 2023