Darwinopterus

Darwinopterus is a genus of pterosaur, discovered in China and named after biologist Charles Darwin. Between 30 and 40 fossil specimens have been identified, all collected from the Tiaojishan Formation, which dates to the middle Jurassic period, 160.89–160.25 Ma ago. The type species, D. modularis, was described in February 2010. D. modularis was the first known pterosaur to display features of both long-tailed ("rhamphorhynchoid") and short-tailed (pterodactyloid) pterosaurs, and was described as a transitional fossil between the two groups. Three additional species, D. camposi, D. linglongtaensis, and D. robustodens, were described from the same fossil beds in February 2025, December 2010, and June 2011, respectively.

Darwinopterus

Didier Descouens · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
MonofenestrataPBDB
Diet
piscivorePBDB, for Pterosauria
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Pterosauria
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
marinePBDB, for Pterosauria

Time the record covers

At most 16 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 168.2 Mya and 152.21 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Middle Jurassic — about 2 of 4 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 2 of 4 occurrencesLate Jurassic169–168 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences168–168 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences168–167 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences167–166 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences166–166 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165–164 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences164–164 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences164–163 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences163–162 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences162–162 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161–161 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–160 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences159–159 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–157 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–156 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155–155 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences153–153 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences153–152 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences152–152 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences168.7 Mya151.7 Mya

4 occurrences of Darwinopterus on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Tiaojishan — 40.87°N, 119.99°E

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The named rock units Darwinopterus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Darwinopterus and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Darwinopterus and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

30 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Darwinopterus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Darwinopterus

Credit
Didier Descouens
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Darwinopterus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itMonofenestrata through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Lü et al. 2010