Sordes is an extinct species of pterosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic in Kazakhstan. Its species name means "hairy filth"; there is an error in its scientific name: Sordes is a feminine word, and thus the second part should be pilosa, but this has yet to be amended. It was believed to be a fish-eating creature and had a wingspan of two feet. Sordes is important to paleontology and pterosaurs in particular because it was the first-known pterosaur fossil to show that pterosaurs had a coat similar to fur.
Discovery[]
Sordes is based on the holotype PIN 2585/3, which consists of a crushed relatively complete skeleton on a slab. It was found in the 1960s at the foothills of the Karatau in Kazakhstan.
Sharov had already referred a paratype or second specimen: PIN 2470/1, again a fairly complete skeleton on a slab. By 2003 another six specimens had been discovered.
In popular culture[]
- Sordes appeared in I’m a Dinosaur.
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