wukongopterus – Nix Illustration

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. — *Wukongopterus lii* (crest version 1)

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.