Sinopterus dongi was a tapejarid pterosaur that lived during the early Cretaceous, around 120 million years ago, in a temperate forest in what is now northeastern China.
It's known from multiple specimens representing different life stages, with the largest fully mature individuals reaching a wingspan of about 1.9m (6'2"). Like other tapejarids it had a toothless parrot-like beak, and a low bony crest on its skull may have supported a larger soft-tissue structure.
A specimen with gut contents has been found showing evidence of plant matter and gastroliths, suggesting that Sinopterus was primarily herbivorous.
———
NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon
References:
Jiang, Shunxing, et al. "First occurrence of phytoliths in pterosaurs—evidence for herbivory." Science Bulletin (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2025.06.040
Pêgas, Rodrigo V., et al. "A taxonomic revision of the Sinopterus complex (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota, with the new genus Huaxiadraco." PeerJ 11 (2023): e14829. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14829
Wang, Xiaolin, and Zhonghe Zhou. "A new pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of western Liaoning, China and its implications for biostratigraphy." Chinese Science Bulletin 48.1 (2003): 16-23. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03183326
Wikipedia contributors. “Sinopterus” Wikipedia, 10 Jul. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinopterus
Tethydraco from Apple TV+'s Prehistoric Planet . If you grew up with BBC's landmark documentary Walking With Dinosaurs like I did , you m...
I was inspired by the impressive diversity of pterosaurs that I recently saw in Prehistoric Planet to write this post. The last of the pterosaurs were more diverse than we could have imagined a few decades ago, and it is my hope that this post will serve to paint you a picture of the world that they lived in.
