While most ancient reptiles crawled, scuttled, and jumped in their prehistoric habitats, one stealthy creature opted for an aerial technique: gliding.
Tiny, “resembling a dragon” Coelurosaurus elivensis (see-luh-roh-SAW’-rah-vus eh-lih-VEN’-sis) used a pair of patagiales – thin membranes that stretched from its torso to its forelimbs, forming a wing to move from treetop to treetop, according to a new study published online Friday, September 9 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (opens in a new tab).
Researchers from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris call the creature “the world’s first gliding reptile”, according to a statement. Since the first fossils of the animal were discovered in 1907, paleontologists have looked into how this species – which measures about 4 inches (10 centimeters) in length, or about the size of a human hand – has evolved to slip through its forest habitat in the late Permian Period (between 260 million and 252 million years ago). But now researchers believe they have solved the mystery, using clues from the tree canopy in the ancient ecosystem of this unique reptile.
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“The resulting image is of a forest where the trees are close enough together that the treetops overlap,” said study lead author Valentin Buffa, a paleontologist at the Paleontology Research Center. and the National Museum of Natural History. “It allowed the animals to move through the trees without needing to descend to the ground where the predators are,” and over time it could have led to the evolution of gliding adaptations, Buffa told Live Science in an email.
“C. elivensis was probably an excellent climber, able to climb up and down tree trunks with ease, and had the ability to jump and slide between branches and trees, which saved him from having to descend even further to the ground,” he added.
The study authors inferred how the gliding reptile moved by reconstructing its skeleton, using fossils of three individuals that had been collected over the years from various locations. The most complete of these, a skeleton from Madagascar, was “sufficient to reconstruct almost the entire skeleton (about 90%) of this species,” Buffa said.
Prior to this reconstruction, researchers were unsure of the exact location of the patagials on the animal’s body. In the new study, the authors proposed that the wing-like structures were most likely located low on the trunk, extending from the gastralia – dermal bones between the sternum and the pelvis – or trunk musculature. The scientists determined this based on the position of the bones, as the soft tissues of the patagialis were not preserved in any of the specimens.
The researchers also compared the proposed location of C. elivensis’ patagial to those of Draco, a genus of modern gliding lizards. Often called “stealing dragon“, Draco lizards live mainly in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. Scientists have reported that C. elivensis “the gliding apparatus was lower on the abdomen than on modern glider lizards,” according to the statement, and that Dracoit is the patagials are supported by its long and flexible ribs.
Modern Draco lizards are not closely related to the ancient C. elivensisbut both probably evolved to have similar body types through convergent evolutionor when animals in similar environments independently develop similar traits.
For example, as Draco, C. elivensis sported “sharp, curved claws” that allowed it to grab branches and tree trunks when moving from tree to tree – and probably also made it a more proficient glider.
“According to the known behavior of Dracowe suggest C. elivensis was able to flex his wrists back and slot his claws between the scales at the top of his wing,” Buffa explained. “This probably allowed him to extend the wing and keep it open even at higher speeds , as well as providing some degree of [pliability] moving your arms slightly.
In addition, “the length and curvature of the patagials make it possible to reconstruct a very wide wing in C. elivensis“, he added. “It would have generated a lot of lift in flight, which would probably have allowed him to hover a significant distance.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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