Researchers are excited about the discovery of what they think is a new species of flying dinosaur that was about the size of a cat. The partial remains of the small dinosaur were discovered in 2009 in British Columbia, Canada. The creature was a kind of pterosaur. Pterosaurs were vertebrates, meaning they had backbones, and likely covered with fur or hair. The remains included evidence of wings, so this pterosaur could fly. Researchers believe it lived about 77 million years ago. Elizabeth Martin-Silverstone is the lead writer of a research paper about the flying dinosaur. She attends the University of Southampton in Britain. Martin-Silverstone said the discovery is an exciting moment in the study of dinosaurs. The hollow bones of pterosaurs are poorly preserved, she said. This suggests that a small pterosaur could very rarely be preserved, but not necessarily that they didn’t exist. The flying dinosaur described in the paper had a wingspan of over one meter.

What does wingspan mean?
the type of feathers on a bird wing
the length and width of a bird beak
the weight of a bird
the distance from the tip of one wing of a bird to the tip of the other wing
What type of dinosaur was the new species?
velociraptor
triceratops
pterosaur
tyrannosaurus rex
Researchers believe the dinosaur lived about 77 million years ago.
12 million
77 million
2 million
60 million