Yi qi

2-day gouache painting of Yi qi, the bizarre new membrane-winged scansoriopterygid. I wanted to see what the membrane would look like attaching further down on the body than in nearly every depiction I've seen so far, which show it attaching on the flank or at the armpit. I can't get behind a leg-attachment point for this critter; it makes more sense to me that a long-legged animal would want its legs free and flexible. If a sprawling mobile hip-joint can be established for scansors, I'd potentially change my stance on that. Anyway, here's a semi-new interpretation amidst a flood of recent restorations.

I'm definitely not convinced of powered flight for this critter, so here it is in an extended leap onto a log in pursuit of a Tiaojishan archisargid fly, Calosargus.