Flying reptiles sliding between the trees

In the perm, between 260 and 252 million years ago, lived the first reptile capable of flight. The Coelurosauravus elivensisthat would fit very well in the palm of one hand, had one membrane which extended to the hips of the body through which he could planar among the foliage of the trees.

The first fossils were found in 1907 in Madagascar and since then, paleontologists have debated much about its peculiar appearance. Thanks to a recently published study in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontologywas it possible to be . to reconstruct skeleton with more details. This allowed us to understand that the evolution of gliding was possible thanks to the specific type of forest in which it lived, whose trees very close to her.

Coelurosauravus elivensis moved slide through the trees, not by land, he looked like a little dragon. The skin membrane extended from the front legs to the trunk, similar to the one they have today flying squirrelsi sugar gliders egg colugh.

Its skeleton was reconstructed by putting together the three fossils available to researchers, and also managed to understand the way it slipped, making it the first reptile of history to fly. Thanks to structure of the bones of the trunk it was possible to speculate about the position of the wing membrane.

According to the researchers, the cause of this evolution was the presence of dense tree crowns, which allowed the reptile to live in trees without ever reaching the ground.