Author: Black-scaled cockscomb snake.
Former senior science lecturer at Wuhan Museum of Natural History.
Scientific advisor to CCTV-9 documentary channel.
This year is the Year of the Dragon in the lunar calendar, and when it comes to animals with the word "dragon", everyone's first reaction is often dinosaurs, and the image of these behemoths that have long disappeared symbolizes mankind's endless yearning and reverie for the mysterious ancient earth.
*丨pexels
However, myths and legends of dragons have many impressive characteristics, and in our ancient earth, there were many creatures with "dragons" in their names, and some of their characteristics actually coincided with legendary dragons, so let's take a look
Wyvern in the sky. The legendary dragon can soar through the clouds and fog and roam the sky.
*丨Wikipedia.
Pterodactyls were the first vertebrates on Earth to appear in power flight, as early as 22.8 billion years ago, in the Late Triassic, the first pterosaurs were already flying in the sky.
Specimen of the genus Forest Pterodactyl.
*丨Wikipedia.
The smallest known pterosaur was a reclusive forest pterosaur that lived in western Liaoxi of China during the Early Cretaceous period, with a wingspan of only 25 centimeters, not much larger than a sparrow, while some members of the Late Cretaceous pterosaur family, such as Aeol's pterosaur and Hatezgo's pterosaur, were real giants, with a wingspan of more than 10 meters, flying like a small airplane.
Diagram of the wing structure of pterosaurs, bats, and birds.
*丨Wikipedia.
The wings of pterosaurs were formed from the same membrane as existing bats, and were supported by an extremely extended fourth phalanx of their forelimbs, but their wing membranes were much stronger than those of bats, with multiple layers of tightly packed fibrous tissue and muscles, and a very tough texture. Even if it is unfortunately pierced, as long as the wound is not too large, it will not have a serious impact on its ability to fly.
Gasbag. *丨Wikipedia.
Early pterosaurs had a long tail and a mouth full of sharp teeth, and the late pterosaurs degenerated their teeth and long tails to reduce their own weight and facilitate flight, and some large pterosaurs evolved unusually strong forelimbs, so that they could rely on the strength of their forelimbs to catapult directly from the ground like pole vaulting, and some pterosaurs even evolved air sacs connected to the lungs and hollow bones inside the wing membranes, which greatly enhanced their flight ability while improving breathing efficiency.
The hidden dragon is in the abyss. Legend has it that dragons can make waves and swim the sea.
There are many ancient marine reptiles that are also called "dragons", and the most prosperous and famous of them are three "families": the oldest are ichthyosaurs, which appeared earlier than pterosaurs and dinosaurs.
Ichthyosaur fossils at the Wiesbaden Museum.
*丨Wikipedia.
Back in 2Five years ago, in the Early Triassic, they were already cruising in the warm shallow sea, and soon after entering the ocean, they evolved into the huge Saster ichthyosauridae, the largest of which is more than 20 meters long (fossils of the Saster ichthyosauridae have been unearthed in Guanling, Guizhou and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China).
Imaginary diagram of the Saster ichthyosauridae.
*丨Wikipedia.
Over the course of their evolutionary history, ichthyosaurs evolved more and more to adapt to life in the ocean: their bodies gradually changed from slender eels to compact and lean, their limbs evolved into fins, their dorsal fins were triangular on their backs, and their tails evolved into crescent-shaped tail fins, which were very similar to dolphins and sharks that were suitable for swimming at high speeds in the ocean.
Some ichthyosaurs also evolved huge eyes to search for prey in the dark depths of the ocean, while others evolved four nostrils like those of extant bony fishes, and may have had a keen sense of smell like a shark underwater.
The second largest "family" is the Finnosaurs, which are "distant relatives" of the existing turtles and turtles, and the most abundant and well-known under them is the plesiosauridae, which morphologically converged with fish.
Plesiosauridae. *丨Wikipedia.
Unlike ichthyosaurs, which are adapted to swim at high speeds, plesiosaurs rely on four flippers to "fly up and down" underwater, and are closer to existing sea lions, penguins and turtles in terms of swimming style.
Thin Plate Dragon. *丨Wikipedia.
Some members, such as the Lamellasaurus, have evolved small heads and extremely long necks, which can hide their huge bodies in deep water while hunting, rely on their long necks to sneak up on fish, and quickly bite down on prey with their sharp teeth in a staggered arrangement.
Restoration of the Polar Swimmer.
*丨Wikipedia.
Living in the icy waters near Antarctica, the giant Polar Swim may have been a filter feeder like the living gray whale, turning the sediments of the ocean floor and filtering the small invertebrates with its long, outward-sloping teeth.
Superior dragon suborder flat-nosed predactosaurus.
*丨Wikipedia.
The ferocious upper dragons are apex predators like large sharks and killer whales, with some members having huge heads and crocodile-like teeth that can prey on large prey such as turtles, ichthyosaurs, and other plesiosaurs.
The extinction of the Late Cretaceous Toulon Order, which wiped out the ichthyosaur family and greatly damaged the vitality of the plesiosaurs, coupled with the abundance of rich, warm and shallow seas formed by rising sea levels, made the third "family" of the "dragon family" in the sea: Canglong Chaoke take the opportunity to seize the dominance of the sea.
Three types of dragon skeletons.
*丨Wikipedia.
A close relative of the extant snakes and monitor lizards, they were small when they first entered the ocean, such as the Dallassaurus, which was only one meter long, but soon evolved into a number of behemoths with a body length of more than 10 meters, the largest of which was the Hoffman dragon, which could be more than 15 meters long and weigh more than 10 tons.
Restoration of the skeleton of the Hoffmann dragon at the Maastricht Museum of Natural History.
*丨Wikipedia.
Many dragons evolved crooked tail fins, i.e., short upper lobes and long lower lobes, as if the tails of existing sharks were turned upside down, and it is speculated that they swam in a similar manner to sharks.
Globodontosaurus is a tooth.
*丨Wikipedia.
Some of the dragons such as the planosaurus and the strange pannosaurus were able to enter fresh water, while others, such as the large-eyed phosphate dragon, were agile predators at night or in the deep sea, the giant genus Cyanosaurus (such as the aforementioned Hoffmann dragon), Neptunesaurus and Diplodontosaurus were fearsome "big stomachs" like the upper dragons, eating almost everything from turtles, sharks, pterosaurs to other dragons, while the bulbodontosaurus with blunt teeth was a "melon seed" and fed on mollusks and crustaceans with hard shells.
Dragonscale Protector. The mythical dragon has huge "scales", like majestic "armor".
Among the dinosaurs, there were a lot of guys with "armor". Armored dinosaurs were plant-feeding ornithischian dinosaurs, and as the name suggests, many members of this family wore a variety of armor.
*丨Wikipedia.
The Stegosaurus suborder, like the familiar Stegosaurus, had two columns of strangely shaped bone plates on its back, and the function of these bone plates is still controversial in the academic community, which may be used to display or regulate body temperature. The real ** of the Stegosaurus suborder is their tail, which has sharp tail spines, which can swing violently like a mace to defend against predators, and some species (such as China's giant spiny dragon and Huayang dragon) also have huge spines on their shoulders to prevent predators from attacking from the side.
Megalosaurus genus. *丨Wikipedia.
Ankylosaurus is another type of armored dinosaur that we are more familiar with, its head and back are covered with "armor" formed by a large number of thick protruding bone plates, some members have huge bony spurs on the shoulders, head, neck and body sides, and some such as Baocephalus even have bone fragments on the eyelids to protect them, which can be described as "armed to the teeth".
*丨Wikipedia.
Members of the Ankylosauridae family also had large hammer-shaped bone balls at the end of their tails, which they used to defend against competitors and predators. These "armors" and "armors" are formed by specialized intradermal osteogenesis, and some extant reptiles, such as crocodiles, also have "armor" formed by intradermal osteogenesis on their dorsals.
The sound of the dragon groaning. Dragons in myths and legends can roar like thunder.
And the dinosaur family also has powerful "voicers". What were dinosaur calls like? This is a question that has long puzzled paleontologists.
*丨Wikipedia.
Studies of the structure of the inner ear of Tyrannosaurus rex have shown that they are very sensitive to low-frequency sounds, so the real-life Tyrannosaurus rex may not make a high-pitched roar like in movies such as "Jurassic Park", but is more likely to produce a deep sound like that of existing crocodiles and some birds, and some of the range may even be so low that the human ear may not be able to detect it.
The long crowns of the paractenophores have complex hollow pipes inside that paleontologists speculate they rely on to communicate with their fellow citizens by emitting high-frequency calls like trombones. A group of ankylosaurs called Ankylosaurus dinosaurs had a complex laryngeal cartilage structure like that of birds, suggesting that they may have been able to produce more complex calls.
Carving dragons and painting phoenixes. Another question that has puzzled scientists in the field of paleontology for a long time is: What color were dinosaurs?
In the past, we could only imagine the colors and patterns of dinosaurs based on existing reptiles, birds, or mammals. However, with the development of research technology, paleontologists are finally able to rely on real evidence to speculate and reconstruct the body color of dinosaurs and other ancient reptiles.
By scanning a small number of particularly well-preserved dinosaur and other paleontological fossils with an electron microscope, we can accurately restore the body color of these paleontologies by scanning a small number of particularly well-preserved dinosaur and other paleontological fossils, and comparing the shape of the remaining pigment cell traces with the pigment cells of existing birds and other animals.
Near-ornithischian dragon. *丨Wikipedia.
For example, the Late Jurassic Nearornithosaurus in western Liaoning, China, is speculated to have grayish-black feathers on its body, reddish-brown crests on its head, and black and white markings on its limbs.
Chinese dragon bird. Microraptor's feathers were metallic black, somewhat similar to those of extant crows;
The feathers on the back of the body are reddish-brown or maroon, the belly is light-colored, and the tail has dark and light rings.
*丨Wikipedia.
Northern shield dragons, which belong to the suborder Ankylosaurus, were draped in reddish-brown armor, while Psittacosaurus had dark patches around the face, shoulders, and cloaca, as well as long hairs on the rump and tail.
The ichthyosaurs and cangsaurs in the ocean have the same anti-shade protective color as many existing marine animals, with a darker body color on the back and a lighter body color on the ventral surface, which is convenient for hiding itself in the ocean.
The dragon sees the head but does not see the end.
The Mesozoic Era, also known as the "Age of Dinosaurs" and the "Age of Reptiles", from the Triassic period more than 200 million years ago to the Cretaceous extinction caused by the impact of an asteroid near today's Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico 66 million years ago, dinosaurs and other ancient reptiles have always been the most eye-catching and reverie-intriguing prehistoric "monsters".
From the discovery of the first dinosaur fossil in the 17th century to the present, there are more than 900 genera and more than 1,000 species of dinosaurs known.
However, due to the harsh conditions under which paleontological fossils are formed and preserved, paleontologists have only learned the tip of the iceberg of the prehistoric world, and countless fossils are buried deep in the strata, waiting to be discovered.
And this is the charm of paleontology.