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Description
As the sun starts to set at the end of a day 120 million years ago, in what is now the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning province, China, the many Vesperopterylus lamadongensis in the forest start emerging from their daytime resting locations to fly around hunting for insects. Vesperopterylus are small pterosaurs with a wingspan of just under a meter and they are nocturnal creatures that hunt flying insects at night, but their small size leaves themselves also having to use their speed and agility to dodge predators. One Vesperopterylus ends up getting attacked by an airborne dinosaur, a bird-like dromaeosaur known as Microraptor gui, which suddenly swoops in from a higher point and sinks its talons into the flesh of the pterosaur. An opportunistic predator willing to eat most animals it can kill, the Microraptor is going to have itself a meal out of the small pterosaur.

Another drawing for Prehistoric Flyers Week (mobile.twitter.com/EDGEinthewi… ). A well-known dinosaur with over 300 known specimens, many being so well-preserved that traces of feathers can be found on many, Microraptor has been extensively studied since it was first described in 2000. With a maximum adult length of 1.2 meters, it was originally believed to be the smallest non-avian dinosaur but has since lost this title. Some specimens of this dinosaur show traces of melanosomes, revealing its feathers were an iridescent black color like those of a crow. early species of the Dromaeosauridae family, also commonly called raptors, Microraptor is an extremely bird-like dinosaur even by dromaeosaur standards. While all dromaeosaurs are believed to be feathered, this one has long wing feathers on all four limbs, making all its limbs into wings. With its small size and 4 bird-like wings, this animal has been speculated to be capable of gliding since its discovery, and was believed to have lived entirely in the treetops while gliding from tree to tree like a flying squirrel while hunting insects, the long feathers on its legs believed to make it a poor runner on the ground. However, more recent studies suggests Microraptor may have been more terrestrial than that as its leg structure matches that of ground-living birds, though it probably could also go up trees. It has also been suggested that the animal was capable of more than just gliding, but may have been capable of powered flight (though to this day this is still heavily debated). This theory is particularly notable as dromaeosaurs and birds split from each other on the family tree before birds developed flight, which would mean Microraptor may have evolved flight separately from birds and be the third known occasion of archosaurs evolving flight independently (after pterosaurs and birds). This dinosaur is now also known to have eaten more than just insects as stomach contents from various fossils have revealed lizards, mammals, birds and fish, showing it was a generalist predator eating animal it can, and it probably lived similarly to a bird of prey, swooping at prey and killing it with its talons. Microraptor has also been suggested to be nocturnal, though its iridescent plumage contradicts this since no extant birds with iridescence are known to be night-active and this isn't a widely-accepted idea.

The Anurognathidae was a highly specialized family of pterosaurs that likely filled the ecological niche now filled by most bats, being nocturnal flyers that hunted insects on the wing. Members of this family are quite small, most having wingspans of just 50 centimeters. Most anurognathids lived in the late Jurassic period when they first evolved, by the Cretaceous they had mostly died out. But one last species was known to have lived in the early Cretaceous of China, Vesperopterylus, and with a wingspan of a meter it was also one of the largest known anurognathids. In the original edition of the paper describing it, the authors misspelled its name as Versperopterylus, though this was later corrected. With sharp hooked claws on its feet, it would've spent the day resting on trees while waking at night to eat bugs. Being fats and nimble in the air, its agility would have been its main defence against predatory dinosaurs.

Sauropod dinosaur background is a titanosaur, inspired by some undescribed remains of an unnamed titanosaur found in the Jiufotang Formation mentioned in this paper (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10… ).

Description
As the sun starts to set at the end of a day 120 million years ago, in what is now the Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning province, China, the many Vesperopterylus lamadongensis in the forest start emerging from their daytime resting locations to fly around hunting for insects. Vesperopterylus are small pterosaurs with a wingspan of just under a meter and they are nocturnal creatures that hunt flying insects at night, but their small size leaves themselves also having to use their speed and agility to dodge predators. One Vesperopterylus ends up getting attacked by an airborne dinosaur, a bird-like dromaeosaur known as Microraptor gui, which suddenly swoops in from a higher point and sinks its talons into the flesh of the pterosaur. An opportunistic predator willing to eat most animals it can kill, the Microraptor is going to have itself a meal out of the small pterosaur.

Another drawing for Prehistoric Flyers Week (mobile.twitter.com/EDGEinthewi… ). A well-known dinosaur with over 300 known specimens, many being so well-preserved that traces of feathers can be found on many, Microraptor has been extensively studied since it was first described in 2000. With a maximum adult length of 1.2 meters, it was originally believed to be the smallest non-avian dinosaur but has since lost this title. Some specimens of this dinosaur show traces of melanosomes, revealing its feathers were an iridescent black color like those of a crow. early species of the Dromaeosauridae family, also commonly called raptors, Microraptor is an extremely bird-like dinosaur even by dromaeosaur standards. While all dromaeosaurs are believed to be feathered, this one has long wing feathers on all four limbs, making all its limbs into wings. With its small size and 4 bird-like wings, this animal has been speculated to be capable of gliding since its discovery, and was believed to have lived entirely in the treetops while gliding from tree to tree like a flying squirrel while hunting insects, the long feathers on its legs believed to make it a poor runner on the ground. However, more recent studies suggests Microraptor may have been more terrestrial than that as its leg structure matches that of ground-living birds, though it probably could also go up trees. It has also been suggested that the animal was capable of more than just gliding, but may have been capable of powered flight (though to this day this is still heavily debated). This theory is particularly notable as dromaeosaurs and birds split from each other on the family tree before birds developed flight, which would mean Microraptor may have evolved flight separately from birds and be the third known occasion of archosaurs evolving flight independently (after pterosaurs and birds). This dinosaur is now also known to have eaten more than just insects as stomach contents from various fossils have revealed lizards, mammals, birds and fish, showing it was a generalist predator eating animal it can, and it probably lived similarly to a bird of prey, swooping at prey and killing it with its talons. Microraptor has also been suggested to be nocturnal, though its iridescent plumage contradicts this since no extant birds with iridescence are known to be night-active and this isn't a widely-accepted idea.

The Anurognathidae was a highly specialized family of pterosaurs that likely filled the ecological niche now filled by most bats, being nocturnal flyers that hunted insects on the wing. Members of this family are quite small, most having wingspans of just 50 centimeters. Most anurognathids lived in the late Jurassic period when they first evolved, by the Cretaceous they had mostly died out. But one last species was known to have lived in the early Cretaceous of China, Vesperopterylus, and with a wingspan of a meter it was also one of the largest known anurognathids. In the original edition of the paper describing it, the authors misspelled its name as Versperopterylus, though this was later corrected. With sharp hooked claws on its feet, it would've spent the day resting on trees while waking at night to eat bugs. Being fats and nimble in the air, its agility would have been its main defence against predatory dinosaurs.

Sauropod dinosaur background is a titanosaur, inspired by some undescribed remains of an unnamed titanosaur found in the Jiufotang Formation mentioned in this paper (onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10… ).