Xianglong
| Xianglong Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,
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| Pencil drawing of Xianglong zhaoi | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Order: | Squamata |
| Genus: | †Xianglong Li et al., 2007 |
| Species | |
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Xianglong (meaning "flying dragon" in
leiolepidines,[2] it was later shown that this was due to misinterpretation of the crushed skull, and its affinities with other lizards remains uncertain.[3]
Description
The
arboreal. The ribs of the animal, which functioned as gliding organs, were found in a half-open position, which indicates a post-mortem relaxation of the folded wing. So far this is the only known fossil gliding lizard, though there are other unrelated animals that also use their ribs to glide.[2]
Gliding ability
Xianglong is one of the few creatures that glide using their ribs. Other creatures, such as the
Draco, Latin for dragon) and Triassic fossil reptiles such as Kuehneosaurus, but the Triassic look-alikes lived over 100 million years before Xianglong. Despite the 11-centimetre (4.3 in) "rib-span", the lizard might have been quite agile in the air, possibly to escape the feathered dinosaurs that coexisted with it.[2]
Xu Xing, a Chinese paleontologist and one of the describers of Xianglong, states that it is possible that it could have glided as far as half a football field, much farther than that of the modern Draco.[1]
Taxonomy
In the original paper describing it, Xianglong was recovered in a
Leiolepidinae. This was based on the strict consensus of the four most parsimonious trees. Below is the tree recovered by Li et al (2007):[2]
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However, in a later 2022 publication, Susan E. Evans said that what the describing authors misinterpreted as acrodont dentition was actually the crushed, jagged broken edge of the jaw, rendering its identification as an iguanian doubtful.[3]
Citations
- ^ a b Ancient lizard glided on stretched skin Ker Than, NBC News. Published March 20, 2007
- ^ PMID 17376871.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-108-93889-1, retrieved 2022-11-06
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Xianglong.
- Photo in the News: Ancient Lizard Glided Using Its Ribs Aalok Mehta National Geographic Society March 20, 2007
- Ancient Lizard Glided on Stretched Ribs by Ker Than, LiveScienceMarch 19, 2007 01:00pm ET