The distinctive birds are recognisable for their tailless body, red faces and legs and black and white underwing.

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Julian felt a slight rush of panic as Obie opened his shirt wide to reveal a tattoo of a tailless dragon over his liver and one of a disarmed battleship across his hairless chest.

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As they report in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, the 160m-year-old Darwinopterus, which has been dug up in Liaoning Province, catches the flying reptiles in transition between the primitive, long-tailed forms exemplified by Rhamphorhynchus and the advanced, almost tailless creatures typified by Pteranodon.

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