Information about Cryptovolans

Cryptovolans Fossil range: Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Saurischia Suborder: Theropoda Family: Dromaeosauridae Genus: Cryptovolans Czerkas et al., 2002
Species
C. pauli Czerkas et al., 2002 (type)

Cryptovolans (meaning 'hidden flyer') is a 90 cm long feathered theropod dinosaur discovered in the Jiufotang site, China. Its specific name, C. pauli, honours paleontologist Gregory S. Paul. Cryptovolans belongs to the family Dromaeosauridae, along with a number of well-known dinosaurs such as Velociraptor.

Flight capability

Cryptovolans is remarkable for being the first known dinosaur to arguably have asymmetric, primary flight feathers on its legs as well as on its arms. It also arguably had such feathers on the end of its long tail, as well as on the rest of its body, and other flight adaptations such as fused sternal plates (Czerkas, 2002).

It is believed that Cryptovolans may have been able to fly better than Archaeopteryx, the animal usually referred to as the earliest known bird. Possessing a keel and ribs with an uncinate process, Cryptovolans has modern bird features which are absent in Archaeopteryx. The fact that this flight-capable animal is also very clearly a dromaeosaurid suggests that the Dromaeosauridae might actually be a basal bird group, and that later (larger) species such as Deinonychus were secondarily flightless (Czerkas, 2002). Current evidence for this theory is inconclusive, and some of the modern bird-like features in Cryptovolans may have evolved independently. Regardless of whether dromaeosaurids are a sister group to birds or actual members of Aves, there is significant evidence that they are part of the Maniraptora suborder of theropod dinosaurs. Some researchers, however, such as Czerkas (2002), argue that maniraptors including modern birds and Cryptovolans are not theropods at all, but members of a pre-theropodan group of arboreal dinosaurs. According to Czerkas, one branch of the pre-theropods became the ground-dwelling theropods, and another branch became the true birds, a group that would include Cryptovolans and other dromaeosaurids, some of which were secondarily flightless.

References

• Czerkas, S.A., Zhang, D., Li, J., and Li, Y. (2002). "Flying Dromaeosaurs", in Czerkas, S.J.: Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight: The Dinosaur Museum Journal 1. Blanding: The Dinosaur Museum, 16-26

Senter, P., Barsold, R., Britt, B.B., and Burnham, D.A. (2004). "Systematics and evolution of Dromaeosauridae (Dinosauria, Theropoda)." Bulletin of the Gunma Museum of Natural History, 8: 1-20.. 

External links

• A model of Cryptovolans pauli by Boban Filipovic