Scansoriopteryx

climbing wing (or climbing feather)

• scansor · Latin · climber
• pteryx · Greek · wing, feather

The name combines the Latin "scansor" (climber) with the Greek "pteryx" (wing or feather). It refers to the animal's long fingers and curved claws, which suggest it climbed trees, and to the feather-like structures preserved with the fossil. The type species is S. heilmanni, named for the bird-evolution researcher Gerhard Heilmann.

Named by

Czerkas and Yuan

Year named

2002

Period

Middle to Late Jurassic

Found in

Daohugou area, northeastern China (Liaoning/Inner Mongolia region)

A small, feathered scansoriopterygid paravian theropod known from a juvenile specimen. Epidendrosaurus (named in 2002 by Zhang et al.) is often regarded as a junior synonym of Scansoriopteryx. The age and source beds of the specimen have been debated: the Daohugou Beds are generally dated to the Middle–Late Jurassic, though an Early Cretaceous origin was originally suggested.