Shrewsbury

16th October 2009

Darwin Dinosaur

A new dinosaur discovered in China has been named after Shrewsbury's Charles Darwin

Researchers from the University of Leicester and the Geological Institute in Beijing have discovered the fossilised skull of a flying dinosaur and named it after none other than Shrewsbury’s most famous son and naturalist Charles Darwin.

Darwinopterus, meaning Darwin’s wing, is believed to be a pterodactyle, one of a number of dinosaurs that dominated the skies 220 to 65 million years ago. The discovery is thought to fill the large evolutionary gap identified in Charles Darwin’s time between long-tailed and short-tailed pterosaurs.

The discovery was made in north-east China where more than 20 fossil skeletons were found in rocks about 160 million years old. Christening the exciting find Darwinopterus honours the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book On The Origin Of Species.