UPFRONT
Artists impression by Mark Witton of what the crestless female and the male could have appeared.
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The female Darsinopterus fossil and a close up of the egg. Photographs, Lü Junchang, Chinese Institute of Geological Sciences.
Sexy dinos
Determining the gender of long extinct animals is not easy, but with the discovery of a flying reptile with an egg has provided the first firm evidence that Jurassic females were different in appearance from males. the discovery was made in 160 million year old rocks at the Liaoning Province in northeast China by a team of scientists from the the Chinese Academy of geological Sciences working with colleagues from the University of Leicester. The fossil flying reptile, known as pterosaurs, is of a type that the team had already
described, but what makes this find so special is that it preserved with an egg. David Unwin, a palaeobiologist from the University of Leicester, explained that flying reptiles often have large head crests, sometimes five times the height of their skull. It was thought that the crest could have been for courtship display, but until now it was not known if it was confined to males. The crestless female provides good evidence that this indeed is the case. The pterosaur, classified as Darwinopterus, had a wingspan of 78 cm and appears to have perished
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