After analyzing an ancient Chinese flying reptile fossil, scientists have identified the oldest pterodactyloid known in existence.

The flying reptiles, LiveScience reported, flew in the air 163 million years ago and evolved from an even more primitive creature called the pterosaur. They were likely one of the largest flying creatures to ever roam the skies.

"This guy is the very first pterodactyloid - he has the last features that changed before the group radiated and took over the world," study co-author Brian Andres, a paleontologist at the University of South Florida, told LiveScience of the team's findings.

The research team published their work Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

"This finding represents the earliest and most primitive pterodactyloid pterosaur, a flying reptile in a highly specialized group that includes the largest flying organisms," Chris Liu, National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences program director, said in a press release. "The research has extended the fossil record of pterodactyloids by at least five million years to the Middle-Upper Jurassic boundary about 163 million years ago."

Pterosaurs were the first flying vertebrates 220 million years ago, even before birds and bats, which came along 150 million and 50 million years ago, respectively. After tens of millions of years, the pterosaurs evolved into a much larger beast, the pterodactyloids. Dubbed Kryptodrakon progenitor, they grew much larger heads and grew to be massive.

"We can look at his anatomy and see what were the last changes in his body that may be responsible for the success of the group," Andres told Reuters.

The scientists gave their new fossil its name because it means "ancestral hidden serpent" and was found where the "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" movie was filmed.

"Kryptodrakon is the second pterosaur species we've discovered in the Shishugou Formation and deepens our understanding of this unusually diverse Jurassic ecosystem," study co-author Dr. James Clark, a professor of biology at George Washington University, said in the release. "It is rare for small, delicate fossils to be preserved in Jurassic terrestrial deposits, and the Shishugou fauna is giving us a glimpse of what was living alongside the behemoths like Mamenchisaurus."