Kongonaphon is an extinct genus of lagerpetid avemetatarsalians that lived through the middle to late Triassic of Eastern Africa, Madagascar. This genus contains only a single species, Kongonaphon kely, which is known from a fragmentary partial skeleton.[1][2]
Discovery[]
Kongonaphon is based on UA 10618, a partial skeleton.
Description[]
The genus has been discovered in Madagascar. It's part of the ancient animal group Ornithodira; this group was the last common ancestor between dinosaurs and winged pterosaurs. Kongonaphon stood just barely of Four Inches tall, a far cry from some of the massive creatures that also comprise Ornithodira. The bones discovered were mainly limb material but they also include a preserved upper jaw bone and "peg-like, unserrated teeth," study author Christian Kammerer, curator of paleontology at North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, tells Inverse, "suggesting an insectivorous diet for this tiny predator." [3]
Paleobiology[]
Lagerpetids are generally thought to be light-bodied, long-legged animals that would not have been especially similar to any living species. This is the first time researchers have discovered a jaw from a lagerpetid. Overall, scientists think lagerpetids were likely bipedal, and on the smaller side, with the Kongonaphon being the smallest. Because of its tiny size, the researchers first had to determine that Kongonaphon wasn't actually a hatchling. They cut open one of the fossilized bones to analyze a cross-section, like counting rings on a tree, to determine that it's a likely the bone of a mature animal.
In turn, they discovered that it was simply miniature. Miniaturization describes animals with smaller adult body size, relative to their evolutionary lineage. Animals might become smaller when it benefits their evolution — smaller animals may need fewer resources, helping them survive in scarce times, for example.
In the case of Kongonaphon, being smaller and eating insects might have helped to survive climate extremes. Both dinosaurs and pterosaurs are known to have fuzzy skin and feathers, which also may be part of thermoregulation. If ornithodiran underwent a miniaturization process, it would help to explain why early stages of pterosaurs are missing: Small, delicate bones are harder to come by because they don't stay preserved as well as larger bones. They are also more likely to be mashed up by scavengers or geologists.
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