Approximately 147 million years ago, in the skies of Bavaria, a species of ancient flying reptile known as pterosaur soared with a wingspan of about 2 meters.
Scientists have unearthed a nearly complete skeleton of a reptile named Skiphosoura bavarica. This discovery enhances our understanding of the evolutionary process of flying lizards—one of the key creatures in the dinosaur era’s ecosystem.
Reconstructed image of the flying lizard Skiphosoura bavarica from the Jurassic period. (Photo: Gabriel Ugueto).
Skiphosoura lived at the end of the Jurassic period. Anatomically, it serves as a bridge between smaller, long-tailed flying reptiles from around 80 million years ago in the Triassic period and the gigantic short-tailed pterosaurs that thrived in the Cretaceous period—such as Quetzalcoatlus, a species with a wingspan comparable to that of an F-16 fighter jet.
“Skiphosoura is of significant importance,” said paleontologist David Hone from Queen Mary University of London, the lead author of the study published in Current Biology on Monday, citing its contribution to our insights into the evolution of flying lizards.
Hone explained, “It also helps clarify findings regarding other flying lizards we have studied, providing a clearer understanding of their position within this group’s classification and allowing us to illustrate the transition from early to late forms—while also identifying which traits changed and in what order.”
This creature, whose scientific name means “sword-tailed from Bavaria,” possessed a short and pointed tail resembling that of a sword. This is quite rare, as fossils typically become flattened. The skeleton was excavated in 2015 in the southeastern state of Bavaria, Germany.
“The skeleton of the flying lizard is very fragile due to their thin bones, making them prone to breaking or being crushed during preservation,” Hone explained.
Skiphosoura may have been one of the largest flying reptiles in its ecosystem, with a skull measuring about 25 cm in length.
“The bony snout extends only to the front of the jaws, but there is a soft tissue portion that expands above it, making it appear a bit larger. We are still unable to determine for sure, but it may have had bright colors or patterns,” Hone said.
“Its teeth were relatively long and sharp, used to pierce and hold onto prey,” Hone elaborated. “It could eat small prey such as lizards, small mammals, large insects, and possibly fish. It likely lived in terrestrial environments, such as forests.”
Flying lizards, relatives of dinosaurs, were the first group of vertebrates to develop the ability to soar. Birds followed about 150 million years ago, with bats appearing around 50 million years later. They went extinct 66 million years ago when an asteroid struck the Earth.
Paleontologists categorize flying lizards into two main groups. The first has a short head, short neck, long tail, short wrist bones, and a long fifth toe on its feet. The later forms have larger heads, long necks, short tails, long wrist bones, and a shorter fifth toe.
The discovery of Skiphosoura and another species named Dearc sgiathanach, which lived about 170 million years ago in Scotland, has clarified many significant events in the evolutionary history of flying lizards. These two species belong to a transitional group called darwinopterans, which acts as a bridge between primitive flying lizards and later ones.
“Skiphosoura fits within the phylogenetic tree between darwinopteran flying lizards and their descendants, the pterodactyloid flying lizards,” said paleontologist and co-author of the study Adam Fitch from the Field Museum in Chicago.
For over 150 million years, flying lizards shaped countless ecological roles, from aerial predators to ground hunters—roles that birds and their close relatives later inherited.
