Paleontologists working in the Illinois Basin have announced the discovery of a 300-million-year-old fossil of a primitive gliding reptile. The specimen is uniquely significant because it preserves intact wing membranes made of skin stretched over elongated ribs, representing one of the earliest known attempts at vertebrate flight in the fossil record.
The fossil was found within a layer of fine-grained shale, which captured delicate details of the animal's scales and the fibrous structure of its gliding surfaces. Researchers believe this species lived in the dense coal forests of the Carboniferous period, using its wings to escape large insect predators by leaping between giant club mosses.