Ancient 'dragons' were Earth’s first gliding reptiles

While most ancient reptiles crawled, scuttled and hopped their way through their prehistoric habitats, one stealthy creature opted for an airborne technique.

A pair of patagials extended from its torso to its front limbs.

The French National Museum of Natural History in Paris claims to have discovered the world's first gliding reptile. Since 1907, when the first fossils of the animal were found, paleontologists have wrestled with how the animal evolved to glide through its forested habitat. Researchers believe they have solved the mystery by using clues about the tree canopy.

The Triassic'shovel lizards' looked like roadkill and were probably killed by a heat wave.

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The lead study author, a paleontologist with the Center for Research in Paleontology and the French National Museum of Natural History, said that the picture was of a forest where the trees are sufficiently close together. "This allowed animals to move around in the trees without needing to come down to the ground where the predator are, and over time this could have driven the evolution of adaptation," said Buffa.

He said that C. elivensis was a great climber, able to move up and down tree trunks easily, and had the ability to jump and glide between branches, saving it from having to come down to the ground.

The authors of the study used fossils from three different people to reconstruct the reptile's skeleton. Almost all of the skeleton of this species was reconstructed by the most complete of them.

Researchers were unsure about the placement of the patagials on the animal's body prior to this reconstruction. The authors proposed that the winglike structures were most likely located low on the trunk or from the trunk's musculature. The patagials' soft tissues were not preserved in any of the samples, so the scientists determined this.

The proposed location of C. elivensis' patagials was compared to that of Draco. The rainforests of Southeast Asia are home to a lot of dragon lizards. The scientists said that the gliding apparatus sat lower on the abdomen than it does on lizards.

The ancient C. elivensis is not related to the modern Draco lizards, but the two probably evolved to have similar body types through convergent evolution.

C. elivensis had "sharp, curved claws" that enabled it to grip branches and tree trunks during its travels from tree to tree, making it a more proficient glider.

"Based on known behavior of Draco, we believe C. elivensis was able to flex its wrists backwards and interlock its finger claws between the scales on top of it's wing," she said. It was possible to extend the wing and keep it open even at higher speeds by moving the arms.

The long and curved patagials allow for the reconstruction of a large wing in C. elivensis. It would have been possible for it to glide a significant distance.

It was originally published on Live Science