OBJECT DOSSIER · SMITHSONIAN OPEN ACCESS

Gliding reptile — Icarosaurus siefkeri

SAGE Museum Deep Time scientific dossier

Artist / Creator

https://www.si.edu/object/icarosaurus-siefkeri-colbert-1966:nmnhpaleobiology_3427354

Date / Period

Late Triassic · Late Triassic.

Object Type

skeleton cast

Medium

unknown_needs_review

About This Object

Geologic period: Late Triassic

Age: Late Triassic.

Feeding: Diet is not securely established from the display cast.

Locomotion: Terrestrial movement combined with aerial gliding.

Body plan: Small terrestrial reptile with dramatically elongated ribs that supported lateral gliding membranes.

Evidence: Elongated ribs are directly preserved and form the structural basis for reconstruction of a gliding membrane.

Why it matters: Icarosaurus demonstrates that vertebrates repeatedly evolved gliding independently, using anatomical solutions very different from true powered flight.

Discovery context: The original Icarosaurus fossil was discovered in 1960 by teenager Alfred Siefker and described scientifically in the 1960s.

Plain Language Identity: A small Late Triassic kuehneosaurid reptile that glided using membranes supported by greatly elongated ribs.

What You Are Looking At: A cast representing the skeleton of Icarosaurus siefkeri.

Ecosystem: Late Triassic terrestrial environment of eastern North America.

Preservation: Visitor object is a skeleton cast.

Formation: Lockatong Formation.

Find Location: Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.

Open Questions: Do not call Icarosaurus a pterosaur. It glided rather than evolving the powered-flight system of pterosaurs.

Source Urls: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour/current-exhibits/deep-time-virtual-tour-fossil-list; https://www.si.edu/object/icarosaurus-siefkeri-colbert-1966:nmnhpaleobiology_3427354; https://field.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/207189

Enrichment Method: SAGE curated research pass; title and scientific name matched; chronology and lineage distinctions retained; evidence separated from inference

Scientific name: Icarosaurus siefkeri

Evidence / representation: comparative_taxon_visual

Why It Is In This SAGE Exhibit

comparative_taxon_visual

Rise of the Dinosaurs: A New World After Catastrophe.

Provenance

Smithsonian Deep Time source scene: Reptiles Move Back to the Ocean in the Jurassic

Visual source institution: Wikimedia Commons

Exhibition History

Included in the SAGE Museum Dinosaurs & Deep Time staging exhibit.

Collection & Credit

Media license: CC BY-SA 4.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

Subjects & Themes

Icarosaurus siefkeri Late Triassic skeleton cast Reptiles Move Back to the Ocean in the Jurassic Rise of the Dinosaurs

ORIGINAL COLLECTION SOURCE

This object page stays inside SAGE Museum. The Smithsonian link below is provided only as the original scholarly collection record. It opens separately.

VIEW ORIGINAL SMITHSONIAN RECORD ↗