Protarchaeopteryx was an ominovorous (or possibly herbivorous) dinosaur that lived in the early
Cretaceous period,
about 125 million years ago in
China.
Protarchaeopteryx had hollow bird-like bones, and a wishbone.
However, Protarchaeopteryx is thought to have been incapable of flight.
This is for two reasons:
Protarchaeopteryx had symettrical feathers on its arms - modern birds with symettrical arm feathers
are incapable of flight.
Protarchaeopteryx's skeletal
structure seems to have been unsuitable for flapping flight.
"Protarchaeopteryx" means "before Archaeopteryx - "Archaeopteryx" refers to one of the earliest known birds, and its name means "ancient wing", thus "Protarchaeopteryx" can be translated as "before ancient wing" or "early ancient wing".
Protarchaeopteryx was a member of the Saurischia ("lizard-hipped") order of dinosaurs. What this means, is that although Protarchaeopteryx was not closely related to lizards, it did have similarly shaped pelvic bones.
Protarchaeopteryx was a Theropod - a member of a group of related bipedal dinosaurs that included the ancestors of birds (although Protarchaeopteryx was not itself an ancestor of birds).
Protarchaeopteryx lived about 125 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period.
Disclosure:
Our company's websites' content (including this website's content) includes advertisements for
our own company's websites, products, and services,
and for other organization's websites, products, and services.
In the case of links to other organization's websites,
our company may receive a payment, (1) if you purchase products or services,
or (2) if you sign-up for third party offers, after following links from this website.
Unless specifically otherwise stated, information about other organization's products and services,
is based on information provided by that organization,
the product/service vendor, and/or publicly available information - and should
not be taken to mean that we have used the product/service in question.
Additionally, our company's websites contain some adverts which we are paid
to display, but whose content is not selected by us, such as Google AdSense ads. For more
detailed information, please see Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures
Our sites use cookies, some of which may already be set on your computer. Use of our site constitutes consent for this. For details, please see Privacy.
Click privacy for information about our company's privacy, data collection and data retention policies, and your rights.
