Artist's Illustration of new Chinese Pterosaur (Nemicolopterus cyrpticus)

Here is Michael Skrepnick's beautiful illustration of the new, tiny Chinese Pterosaur, Nemicolopterus cyrpticus.

Michael's attention to detail is renowned in the palaeoart world.  In this depiction of the smallest Pterosaur known to date, the dragonfly prey was chosen after consulting with the palaeontologists responsible for the find, as prehistoric species from the Cretaceous were roughly the same size of dragonflies today.  Thus the captured dragonfly provides a scale and emphasises the diminutive nature of the Nemicoplopterus.

Insects would certainly have been abundant, dragonflies have been found as fossils in the area and they would have been a likely source of food for this Pterosaur.  The ginkgo on which Nemicolopterus is perched is also associated with the fossil record from the area, but is a much more delicate form than the species of ginkgo living today (G. biloba).

Michael wanted to depict the Pterosaur precariously perched on some branchlets, giving the impression of swaying in a light breeze momentarily, before deciding to flitter away with its prize!

The original image was painted in 1:1 scale on an 8" x 10" illustration board and Mike seems to have captured the impression of a tiny Pterosaur, perfectly at home in the tree canopy.  As he points out, this fossil has affinities with the late Cretaceous Azhdarchids, one of the last families of Pterosaurs to survive to the K-T boundary.  Azhdarchids evolved into huge gliding forms, perhaps the largest flying creatures ever, animals such as Quetzalcoatlus which had a wingspan in excess of 12 metres.

When you consider the humble origins of the Azharchids, as tiny insect eaters living in forests, it makes for a stunning example of how evolutionary processes work.

Our grateful thanks to Mike Skrepnick for allowing Everything Dinosaur to publish his work.