New pterosaur marks 20 years of Sino-Brazilian research – 12/21/2023 – Darwin and God

Welcome to the list of Sino-Brazilian pterosaurs, honorable — and carnivalesque — Meilifeilong youhao. The species, recently described by researchers from Brazil and China in an article in the specialized magazine Scientific Reportshelps mark 20 years of collaboration between paleontologists from both countries who are among the main scholars of these flying reptiles.

“Beautiful flying dragon of friendship” is the poetic Chinese name given to the creature, which lived around 130 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. It is possible that members of its pterosaur subgroup lived in Brazil (our country, in fact, was home to a spectacular fauna of these vertebrates).

O Meilifeilong youhao it was toothless and had wings that measured more than 2 m in length from tip to tip. “It presents a cranial crest above the huge nasoantorbital window (opening in the skull that includes the external nostrils) with a smooth extension”, says Alexander Kellner, paleontologist and director of the Museu Nacional/UFRJ, who is one of the authors of the new research.

On the eastern side, the work was led by Xiaolin Wang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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