![\"Kongonaphon](\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Kongonaphon-Edit-copy.jpg\")
<\/a>Kongonaphon kely<\/em> illustration. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Click for larger image.<\/span><\/p>\nDinosaurs and flying pterosaurs may be known for their remarkable size, but a newly described species from Madagascar that lived around 237 million years ago suggests that they originated from extremely small ancestors. The fossil reptile, named Kongonaphon kely<\/em>, or \u201ctiny bug slayer,\u201d would have stood just 10 centimeters (or about 4 inches) tall. The description and analysis of this fossil and its relatives, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>, may help explain the origins of flight in pterosaurs, the presence of \u201cfuzz\u201d on the skin of both pterosaurs and dinosaurs, and other questions about these charismatic animals.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a general perception of dinosaurs as being giants,\u201d said Christian Kammerer, a research curator in paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and a former Gerstner Scholar at the American Museum of Natural History. \u201cBut this new animal is very close to the divergence of dinosaurs and pterosaurs, and it\u2019s shockingly small.\u201d<\/p>\n Dinosaurs and pterosaurs both belong to the group Ornithodira. Their origins, however, are poorly known, as few specimens from near the root of this lineage have been found. The fossils of Kongonaphon<\/em> were discovered in 1998 in Madagascar by a team of researchers led by American Museum of Natural History Frick Curator of Fossil Mammals John Flynn (who worked at The Field Museum at the time) in close collaboration with scientists and students at the University of Antananarivo, and project co-leader Andre Wyss, chair and professor of the University of California-Santa Barbara\u2019s Department of Earth Science and an American Museum of Natural History research associate.<\/p>\n \u201cThis fossil site in southwestern Madagascar from a poorly known time interval globally has produced some amazing fossils, and this tiny specimen was jumbled in among the hundreds we\u2019ve collected from the site over the years,\u201d Flynn said. \u201cIt took some time before we could focus on these bones, but once we did, it was clear we had something unique and worth a closer look. This is a great case for why field discoveries\u2014combined with modern technology to analyze the fossils recovered\u2014is still so important.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDiscovery of this tiny relative of dinosaurs and pterosaurs emphasizes the importance of Madagascar\u2019s fossil record for improving knowledge of vertebrate history during times that are poorly known in other places,\u201d said project co-leader Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana, professor and director of the vertebrate paleontology laboratory at the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar. \u201cOver two decades, our collaborative Madagascar-U.S. teams have trained many Malagasy students in paleontological sciences, and discoveries like this helps people in Madagascar and around the world better appreciate the exceptional record of ancient life preserved in the rocks of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Kongonaphon<\/em> isn\u2019t the first small animal known near the root of the ornithodiran family tree, but previously, such specimens were considered \u201cisolated exceptions to the rule,\u201d Kammerer noted. In general, the scientific thought was that body size remained similar among the first archosaurs\u2014the larger reptile group that includes birds, crocodilians, non-avian dinosaurs, and pterosaurs\u2014and the earliest ornithodirans, before increasing to gigantic proportions in the dinosaur lineage.<\/p>\n \u201cRecent discoveries like Kongonaphon<\/em> have given us a much better understanding of the early evolution of ornithodirans. Analyzing changes in body size throughout archosaur evolution, we found compelling evidence that it decreased sharply early in the history of the dinosaur-pterosaur lineage,\u201d Kammerer said.<\/p>\n This \u201cminiaturization\u201d event indicates that the dinosaur and pterosaur lineages originated from extremely small ancestors, yielding important implications for their paleobiology. For instance, wear on the teeth of Kongonaphon<\/em> suggests it ate insects. A shift to insectivory, which is associated with small body size, may have helped early ornithodirans survive by occupying a niche different from their mostly meat-eating contemporaneous relatives.<\/p>\n