This lizard-like reptile was found in 1965 in the Madygen Formation, Dzailauchou, on the southwest edge of the Fergana Valley in Kyrgyzstan, in what was then the Asian part of the U.S.S.R.[1] dating to the middle-late Triassic period (about 225 million years ago).

The skeleton is preserved in dorsal view and largely complete, with the bones still articulated and impressions of some of the integument.

If the tiny front limbs also supported a membrane, they could have acted as a very efficient means of controlling pitch stability, very much like an aeronautic canard.

Together with the canards on the forelimbs, these anterior membranes may have formed excellent control surfaces for gliding.

Sharovipteryx is generally agreed to belong to a group of early archosaur relatives known as the protorosaurs (or prolacertiformes).