Ancient flying dragon discovered in China

March 21, 2007

Chinese scientists say they've found the remains of a small "flying dragon" that lived around the time of the dinosaurs.

The London Telegraph says the six-inch long skeleton of the Gliding Lizard fossil features "elongated ribs that helped to spread a wing-like membrane for gliding."

A report by Xing Xu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleonanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says the unusual arrangement is found today only in the dragon lizards of southeast Asia.

The fossil of insect eating reptile was found in the Liaoning Province of northeastern China.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International

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