Laopteryx Laopteryx Laopteryx is the name assigned to a pterosaur (flying reptile) from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Wyoming, United States; it was originally thought to be a bird. The genus was named in 1881 by Othniel Charles Marsh. The generic name is derived from Greek "laas", "stone", and "pteryx", "wing". The full species name given by Marsh was "Laopteryx priscum"; the specific name meaning "of venerable age" in Latin. However, Marsh incorrectly used the neuter form, while "pteryx" is feminine in Greek. (See grammatical gender.) This was in the 19th century emended to an, also incorrect, masculine "priscus" and
South Polar region of the Cretaceous in the Early Cretaceous, and likely the ancestors of the endemic mammals of Australia arrived during the Jurassic across the supercontinent Pangaea. Several fossils of insects and crustaceans are known from South Polar Cretaceous sediments of New Zealand. The Late Cretaceous Mangaotanean Monro Conglomerate was situated at 68°S and provided fossils of "Helastia sp.", and the crab "Hemioon novozelandicum" was found in the Swale Siltstone, located at 76°S during the late Albian. Several specimens of insects were also found in the Tupuangi Formation of the Chatham Islands at a latitude of 79°S during the Cenomanian to Turonian. South Polar region