Did this “vampire” feed on dinosaur blood?

Prepare to be confronted with something scarier (and cuter) than Jurassic Park’s raptors. In the mid to late Jurassic, the world was full of furry, flying vampire pterosaurs who fed on dinosaur blood.

The Jeholopterus was a small pterosaur who was found in Northeastern China. Though originally identified as an insect-eater, an odd mystery about the animal eventually led one researcher to suggest the creature was actually feeding on the blood of nearby sauropods.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences published the journal article A nearly complete articulated rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur with exceptionally well-preserved wing membranes and “hairs” from Inner Mongolia, Northeast China. The paper recorded the discovery of a new pterosaur, Jeholopterus ninchengensis.

The researchers named the pterosaur for the area of its discovery, Ningcheng County of Inner Mongolia. The wingspan of Jeholopterus is a little less than three feet and the pterosaur likely weighed in around five to ten pounds - a little smaller than the average Barn Owl. Several fibers of “hair” are seen among the wings and body in the specimen, along with imprints from a large amount of soft tissue. The skull of the fossil is crushed, limiting interpretation of the head.

The authors placed Jeholopterus within the Anurognathidae group – a group of small pterosaurs known for feeding on insects. But Jeholopterus, unlike most pterosaurs, does not have a long beak.