Star Wars creature-like dinosaur discovered – News

The international team of paleontologists found the skeleton inside a rock in China’s Hubei province, and using x-ray images, the team examined the small flying animal.

Scientists, who published the discovery in the journal PeerJ, identified the dinosaur as a new genus and species of pterosaur called Sinomacrops bondei.

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“Although it has been overwritten to the point of erasing many details, the specimen is quite complete and provides new information for the group,” the report details.

Using x-ray images has allowed researchers to reconstruct the tiny, winged creature that was extinct around 160 million years ago.

Artistic reconstruction of the Sinomacrops (illustration: Zhao Chuang).

According to Megan Jabobs, a paleontologist at Baylor University in Texas, USA, this flying dinosaur lived among the trees of present-day China and had big eyes and a smile on its mouth that made it look like the Porgs, the little creatures. native. of the planet Ahch-To from the Star Wars saga.

“This dinosaur is round, with large eyes facing forward. Most pterosaurs from this period have elongated snouts filled with tiny teeth, ”Jacobs said and linked the animal to the cinematic creatures.

The porgs that appear in the Star Wars movie.

Scientists believe the new creature they have found is a prehistoric version of bats, which roam in low light conditions to catch insects and eat them as their main food.

Jabobs said the finds were exciting because pterosaur fossils are extremely rare, as their thin, hollow bones are not as well preserved as those of other creatures.