Feilongus

A colored digital ink illustration of a flying Feilongus, an extinct pterosaur. It has a very long low snout with a low bony crest on the top, interlocking needle-like teeth in the front third of its jaws, and the upper jaw somewhat longer than the lower forming a distinct overbite. Its eyes are set far back on its head, and there's another bony crest at the back of its skull. It also has a long neck, a compact torso, long membranous wings with three small fingers alongside the elongated wing finger, and slender legs held out behind it in flight. It's depicted with its snout and crests colored yellow with dark red markings, and the rest of its body being grey and brown.

Feilongus youngi was a pterosaur that lived during the early Cretaceous (~125 million years ago) in what is now northeastern China.

Known only from two skulls and a few neck vertebrae, its full body proportions are uncertain, but it’s estimated to have had a wingspan of somewhere around 2.4m (7’10”). As part of the ctenochasmatid lineage it was probably a wader specializing in snagging aquatic prey between its interlocking needle-like teeth.

It had two bony crests on its head – a long low one along its snout, and a backwards-pointing one at the very back of its skull – along with a distinct overbite at the front of its jaws. These structures are only seen in the larger of the two known specimens, suggesting that they either only developed towards full maturity or that this species was sexually dimorphic.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *