A computer reconstruction by Kongonaphon kely, a 237 million year old ancestor of reptiles and dinosaurs.
Frank Ippolito / American Natural History Museum ©
A homuncular species that was discovered over two decades ago in a sandstone basin in southern Madagascar can provide clues as to the origin of the dinosaurs, including how pterosaurs learned to fly and why the creatures may have been covered with “blurry” skin coverings such as feathers .
The study, published in the National Academy of Sciences’ Proceedings magazine on Monday, describes the discovery of a handful of fossils from a 237 million year old reptile known as dubbed Kongonaphon kely, for the first time. Its name is derived from both the Malagasy language of Madagascar and ancient Greek and means “little beetle hunter”. It was found in the Morondava Basin, a gray sandstone basin in southern Madagascar, and is shorter than an iPhone and about four inches high.
(This is not a science, but look at the illustration on the right and you will find that it was likely extremely cute.)
An illustration of the newly discovered archosaur.
Alex Boersma
It has been classified as an archosaur – a common ancestor of both dinosaurs and flying pterosaurs – and provides valuable clues to the early development of these animals, which were orders of magnitude larger than the tiny Congo phonon.
“Dinosaurs are generally perceived as giants,” said Christian Kammerer, paleontologist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, in a press release. “But this new animal is very close and shockingly small to the divergence of dinosaurs and pterosaurs.”
The team examined the fossil samples and was able to understand the early development of the archosaurs. It seems to indicate that they started miniaturizing when dinosaurs and pterosaurs first appeared. The teeth of the newly excavated creature also enabled the research team to conclude that it was likely eating insects. To be such a small reptile that certainly makes sense and would have helped the tiny beetle hunter to survive.
The reduction in height, according to the researchers, could also have contributed to the evolutionary success of dinosaurs and pterosaurs. Miniaturization makes it much more difficult to store heat – and the research team suspects that Kongonaphon provides evidence that blurred skin coverings, such as feathers, have emerged to keep warm. In addition, previous research has shown that miniaturization can be a necessary precursor to powered flight.
It is possible that Kongonaphon has given paleontologists a glimpse into the history of dinosaurs and pterodactyls to reveal how the beasts ruled the planet some 230 million years ago during the Middle Triassic period.