![A colored line drawing of Wukongopterus, an extinct pterosaur, standing on all fours facing forwards with its head and tail raised, and a slightly squinty expression to its one visible eye that gives it the impression of being disapproving. It has long triangular jaws lined with tiny sharp teeth, a large semicircular crest along the top of its head, and a fairly long thick neck, a small fuzzy body, and a long tail ending in a multi-lobed vane. Its wings fingers are folded up against its arms and its flight membrane is mostly contracted. It's colored orange-brown with a pale underside, with darker stripes and yellow splotches, and a red eyespot-like marking on its crest.](https://nixillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/wukongopterus_v1-796x1024.png)
![A colored line drawing of Wukongopterus, an extinct pterosaur, standing on all fours facing forwards with its head and tail raised, and a slightly squinty expression to its one visible eye that gives it the impression of being disapproving. It has long triangular jaws lined with tiny sharp teeth, a semicircular crest on the top of the front of its snout, and a fairly long thick neck, a small fuzzy body, and a long tail ending in a multi-lobed vane. Its wings fingers are folded up against its arms and its flight membrane is mostly contracted. It's colored orange-brown with a pale underside, with darker stripes and yellow splotches, and a red eyespot-like marking on its crest.](https://nixillustration.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/wukongopterus-v2-796x1024.png)
Wukongopterus lii was a pterosaur that lived during the mid-to-late Jurassic, about 164 million years ago, in what is now northeastern China. It was fairly small, with a wingspan of around 70cm (~2’4″), and showed a mixture of anatomical features in-between the long-tailed short-headed ‘rhamphorhynchoids‘ and the short-tailed long-headed pterodactyloids.
Its long jaws were lined with tiny pointed conical teeth, suggesting it was adapted for primarily feeding on insects. It also had a very slight overbite, with the first two pairs of teeth in its upper jaw protruding almost vertically over the end of its lower jaw.
As a fully mature adult it would have had a low bony crest on its head that probably supported a larger cartilaginous structure – similar to other known wukongopterids – although the exact size and shape is unknown since the one confirmed specimen of Wukongopterus is missing that particular part of its skull. Another fossil nicknamed “Ian” may represent a second individual of this species, showing a different crest arrangement further forward on its snout, so I’ve made two different versions of today’s image to reflect that possibility.
References:
- Cheng, Xin, et al. “New information on the Wukongopteridae (Pterosauria) revealed by a new specimen from the Jurassic of China.” PeerJ 4 (2016): e2177. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2177/supp-1
- Garland, Nick. “Ian the Wukongopterid.” Pteros, https://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/ian-the-wukongopterid.html
- Wang, Xiaolin, et al. “An unusual long-tailed pterosaur with elongated neck from western Liaoning of China.” Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 81 (2009): 793-812. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0001-37652009000400016
- Wikipedia contributors. “Wukongopterus.” Wikipedia, 8 Dec. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wukongopterus
- XuanYu Zhou 周炫宇. Anatomy, Systematics and Paleopathology of Pterosaurs: insights based on new specimens from China. 2023. Hokkaido University, PhD thesis. https://doi.org/10.14943/doctoral.k15600