Vectidraco daisymorrisae  — вид птерозавров из надсемейства Azhdarchoidea. Обнаружен в породах мелового периода (Atherfield Clay Formation, аптский ярус) на острове Уайт (Южная Англия, Великобритания). Возраст находки — 115 млн лет.

 Предположительный размер ископаемой рептилии был около 35 см, а размах её крыльев достигал 75 см (размер взрослой особи мог быть больше). Вероятно, Vectidraco — самый мелкий представитель всех Azhdarchoidea, так как другие известные самые мелкие аздархоиды (китайские Sinopterus и Huaxiapterus из семейства Tapejaridae) имеют размах крыльев 114 и 143 см соответственно. По мнению авторов описания, Vectidraco по своей общей морфологии и пропорциям тела был сходен с родом Tapejara и другими мелкими птерозаврами надсемейства Azhdarchoidea, был беззубым, возможно, с гребнем на голове, имел сравнительно короткие крылья и был способен к четвероногой локомоции.

 Вид был назван V. daisymorrisae в честь 9-летней девочки Дэйзи Моррис (Daisy Morris), обнаружившей останки рептилии на побережье острова. Она любила ходить по пляжу и собирать кости животных, ракушки, черепа и зубы. По мнению соавтора описания палеонтолога Мартина Симпсона из Университета Саутгемптона, куда в 2009 году обратились родители девочки, если бы юная исследовательница не нашла окаменелости, то они могли быть уничтожены и смыты морским прибоем. Название рода Vectidraco происходит от греческого имени острова Уайт (Vectis) и слова дракон («дракон с острова Уайт»).

 A scientific paper was published in 2013 about the find in the electronic journal PLoS ONE, titled A New Small-Bodied Azhdarchoid Pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of England and Its Implications for Pterosaur Anatomy, Diversity and Phylogeny. In it Darren Naish, Martin Simpson, and Gareth Dyke described and named the type species Vectidraco daisymorrisae. The generic name is derived from the Latin Vectis, the Roman name of the island now known as the Isle of Wight, and dracō, meaning "dragon". The specific name honours the discoverer Daisy Morris. A children's book has also been written by Simpson about Daisy Morris's discovery, called Daisy and the Isle of Wight Dragon.

 The only known specimen, holotype NHMUK PV R36621, was uncovered in the Chale Clay Member of the Atherfield Clay Formation of the Lower Greensand Group, a clay layer of the Deshayesites forbesi zone, Deshayesites fittoni subzone, dating from the early Aptian, with an age of 124 million years. It consists of the left side of a pelvis, the right ischium, the rear dorsal vertebra and the first three sacral vertebrae, of a subadult or adult individual.

 Vectidraco is a relatively small pterosaur. The pelvis is four centimetres long as preserved. Vectidraco's wingspan was estimated at seventy-five centimetres, its total body length at thirty-five centimetres. In view of its affinities, the describing authors assumed it was a toothless form, featuring a crest on its snout.

 Several unique derived traits, autapomorphies, were established. The hip joint is bordered at its top rear corner by a triangular depression. This depression is overhung by a ridge running downwards to the rear. The front blade of the ilium features an undivided roughly oval depression at its front inner side, below a convex surface. Furthermore a unique combination of traits is present in that the elongated rear blade of the ilium is T-shaped, terminating in a wide expansion also projecting upwards, that is longer than the shaft of the rear blade itself.

 Damage to the ilium shows the presence of camellate bone, internal air chambers. Also all the preserved vertebrae are pneumatised.

 Vectidraco was assigned to the Azhdarchoidea, in a basal position. If correct, this would make it one of the smallest azhdarchoids known

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, аждархойды, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеродактили, птерозавры

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 Zhenyuanopterus is a genus of pterosaur which is known from Lower Cretaceous (early Aptian) Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China.

 It has been suggested that Zhenyuanopterus foraged while swimming, trapping prey within its needle-like teeth, a method similar to that of modern Platanista river dolphins, which display a similar dentition. This is a reasonably large pterosaur, with a wingspan of about 4 m (Lü 2010).

 One more interesting thing to say about these pterosaurs – and this isn’t unique to boreopterids but goes for ornithocheirids as well – look how tiny their feet are! It also seems that some ornithocheiroids lack fibulae, but it remains uncertain how widespread this is (among boreopterids, Boreopterus lacks them but this was assumed to be preservational, while Zhenyuanopterus has them). The enormous wings and very small, weak legs of many ornithocheiroids show pretty convincingly that they were predominantly aerial, that they walked little, and that they made a living by grabbing objects while in flight. What a strong contrast to long-legged, relatively short-winged pterodactyloids like the azhdarchids.

 It has been often suggested that this animal is actually the adult of its close relative Boreopterus, which is known to be a juvenile.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, архозавроморфы, архозавры, бореоптериды, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеранодонтойды, птеродактили, птерозавры

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 Eurazhdarcho is a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous Transylvanian Basin of Romania.

 In 2009, Mátyás Vremir at Lancrăm near Sebeş-Glod in Transylvania at the SbG-B site uncovered the remains of a pterosaur. He donated these to the Erdélyi Múzeum, of the Societății Muzeului Ardelean (Transylvanian Museum Society). Subsequent excavations by Vremir discovered additional bones of the same individual animal and were added by him to the collection of the Babeș-Bolyai University.

 In 2013, Vremir, Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner, Darren Naish, and Gareth Dyke named and described the type species Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis. The generic name combines the name of Europe with that of the related form Azhdarcho. The specific name refers to Langendorf, the name of Lancrǎm in the language of the German ethnic minority in Romania. The article appeared in the electronic journal PLoS ONE without an accompanying printed version; it nevertheless validly names the taxon under the new rules of the ICZN.

 The holotype, EME VP 312, was found in a layer of the Sebeş Formation dating from the upper Early Maastrichtian, about 69 million years old. It consists of a partial skeleton lacking the skull. It includes three neck vertebrae among which the almost complete third and the fourth; the third and fourth right metacarpal; the upper part of the first phalanx of the wing finger; the lower part of the second phalanx; a lower phalanx of one of the other fingers and a number of undetermined fragments. The Babeș-Bolyai University material is included within this enumeration and is not indicated by a separate inventory number. Generally the quality of the bones is poor with much of the outer cortex broken or eroded and internal structures present as (impressions of) natural moulds. The fossils have not been completely flattened, preserving three-dimensionality, but compression has caused some distortion. The carcass had probably by flooding been deposed on its back in mud near a riverbank. Afterwards it was exposed to the air, weathering and being scavenged as proven by circular bite-marks inflicted by the conical teeth of some member of the Crocodyliformes. Later covered by a thin layer of dirt, it was damaged by beetles and termites.

 The authors noted that from the same Romanian layers the related giant form Hatzegopteryx is known; the known fossil material from both genera does not overlap. The authors considered an identity to be unlikely because the much smaller EME VP 312 seems to represent an adult individual.

 Eurazhdarcho is a medium-sized azhdarchid. The authors estimated its wingspan at three metres, extrapolating from an estimated length for the fourth metacarpal of about twenty-five centimetres.

 The authors established some distinctive traits, all present in the cervical vertebrae. The third neck vertebra has three-quarters of the length of the fourth vertebra, whereas 60% would be normal with azhdarchids. The necks of the prezygapophyses, the front joint processes, are well-developed and elongated, obliquely pointing forwards and outwards under an angle of 30° with the long axis of the vertebra. The preexapophysis, a secondary joint process on the side of the prezygapophysis, is well-developed with a forward pointing articulation facet and separated from a process, itself the remains of the diapophysis and possibly a neck rib, on the outer base of the prezygapophysis, by a deep trough on its underside. The pneumatic openings, the entrance holes for the air sacks, at the sides of the neural arch are small and placed in a low position.

 Eurazhdarcho was by the authors assigned to the Azhdarchidae, based on the method of comparative anatomy; a cladistic analysis was not performed.

 The area where Eurazhdarcho was found, in the Upper Cretaceous was localised on the Hațeg Island, part of the European Archipelago. The SbG-B site, though encompassing a surface of just 200 m³, has yielded several distinct animal species among which the turtle Kallokibotion bajazidi, the hadrosaur Telmatosaurus and a form referred to the titanosaur Magyarosaurus. This terrestrial fauna suggests that Eurazdarcho was not a coastal piscivore catching fish on the wing, affirming the "superstork" model for azhdarchids, in which they are terrestrial stalkers snatching small prey animals while walking on all fours.

 If Eurazhdarcho was indeed distinct from Hatzegopteryx, its discovery implies the presence of two azhdarchid forms in the Hațeg fauna, the one gigantic, the other medium-sized. This suggests a niche partitioning between them, although it is as yet unclear how this correlates with differences in prey preference and hunting techniques. This reflects a pattern seen in other Late Crataceous faunae which also show a combination of a large azhdarchid species with a smaller one. The Javalina Formation from the Maastrichtian of Texas has brought forth the giant Quetzalcoatlus northropi but also a smaller Quetzalcoatlus sp. and the azhdarchoid represented by specimen TMM 42489-2. The Two Medicine Formation fauna from the Campanian of Montana includes the smaller Montanazhdarcho minor, with a wingspan of 2.5 metres, but also fragments of larger forms with a span of eight metres. In the coeval Dinosaur Park Formation of Canada the smaller specimen RTMP 92.83 was discovered with a wingspan of five to six metres but also the large specimen PMA P.80.16.1367 indicating a ten metre wide animal.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, аждархиды, аждархойды, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеродактили, птерозавры

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 Haopterus is a pterodactyloid pterosaur genus from the Barremian-Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China. It was in 2001 named by Wang Xiaolin and Lü Junchang. The type species is Haopterus gracilis. The genus name honours Professor Hao Yichun and combines his name with a Latinised Greek pteron, "wing". The specific name, "slender-built" in Latin, refers to the condition of the metatarsals.

 The genus is based on holotype IVPP V11726, a crushed fossil found in 1998 at the Sihetun-locality. The layer it was discovered in, was argon-dated at an age of 124.6 million years. It was the first Chinese pterosaur fossil preserving the skull. It consists of the front half of a subadult, including a skull, lower jaws, pectoral girdle, sternum, wings, cervical and dorsal vertebrae, partial pelvis and metatarsals.

 The skull is with a length of 145 millimetres long and low, lacking a crest. The snout is pointed but rounded. The maxilla and praemaxilla are completely fused with no visible suture. The nasopraeorbital skull opening is elongated and elliptical with a length of four centimetres, 27,6% of the total skull length. The lower jaws have a length of 128 millimetres. On the front two thirds of their length teeth are present. There are twelve pairs of teeth in both the upper and the lower jaws. The teeth are robust, sharp, pointed, and curving backwards. To the front they gradually increase in length and point more to the front. The first three pairs in the praemaxilla are very small though; the describers assumed these were replacement teeth, recently erupted.

 The back of the skull and the cervical vertebrae are strongly crushed, obscuring most details. Eight dorsal vertebrae are preserved, with a total length of 52 millimetres. The sternum was fan-shaped with a prominent keel. The wings are robustly built; the ulna is with 101 millimetres longer than the wing metacarpal which has a length of 89 millimetres. The wingspan of the type individual was estimated at 1.35 metre (4.43 ft). In comparison the hindlimbs must have been weakly built, the metatarsal having a length of just seventeen millimetres.

 The authors concluded that its slender hindfeet meant that it was forced to move quadrupedally on land, suggesting a piscivore lifestyle as a specialised soarer.

 Haopterus was by Wang classified as a member of the Pterodactylidae, mainly because of the combination of robust teeth with the lack of a skull crest. In 2006 however, a cladistic analysis by Lü showed it was a basal member of the Ornithocheiridae.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейриды, орнитохейройды, птеродактили, птерозавры

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 Banguela oberlii is a dsungaripterid pterosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil.

 The Swiss collector Urs Oberli acquired a pterosaur jaw fragment from the Chapada do Araripe. In 2005, this was described by André Jacques Veldmeijer e.a. and referred to Thalassodromeus sethi. In 2006, Veldmeijer named it as a new Thalassodromeus species: Thalassodromeus oberli. However, this was done in his dissertation and thus merely resulted in an invalid nomen ex dissertatione.

 In 2014 it was named and described by Jaime Headden and Hebert Bruno Nascimento Campos as a separate genus Banguela, with the type species Banguela oberlii. The genus name is a Brazilian Portuguese word for "toothless one", especially used as an affectionate term for elderly women. The specific name honours Oberli.

 The holotype, NMSG SAO 251093, was probably found in the Romualdo Formation, also known as the Romualdo Member of the Santana Formation, dating from the Aptian-Albian. It consists of the symphysis, fused front end, of the lower jaws.

 Banguela has an estimated skull length of about two feet and wingspan of over twelve feet. The symphysis, with a preserved length of 273 millimetres, curves upwards and has a relatively short depression at its upper rear end. The front upper edge of the symphysis is sharp. The front bottom edge is sharp too but lacks a true crest. There are no teeth or tooth sockets present in the fragment.

 Veldmeijer had already in 2005 noted similarities to Dsungaripterus, but considered the available data to be insufficient to draw any conclusions from this. In 2014, Headden & Campos placed Banguela in the Dsungaripteridae, in a basal position. Banguela is unique among dsungaripterid pterosaurs due to a presumed total absence of teeth. Other pterosaur groups, such as pteranodontids, nyctosaurids and azhdarchoids, have also lost their teeth, indicating that toothloss might have independently occurred at least four times among pterosaurs. However, because dsungaripterids are occasionally recovered as derived azhdarchoids, it is possible that toothloss has occurred more often, if as an instance of Dollo's Law azhdarchoids should be originally toothless. If there was a large number of cases, Banguela suggests how it developed in most of these: the development of horned rhamphothecae in the jawtips, with progressive tooth rarification until they cease to be useful.

 It is worth to note that dsungaripteroids have some of the most specialised teeth of all sauropsids, so Banguela's toothlessness must indicate some degree of divergent specialisation.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, аждархойды, архозавроморфы, архозавры, джунгариптероиды, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеродактили, птерозавры

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 Ikrandraco ("Ikran [a flying creature from Avatar with a crest on the lower jaw] dragon") is a genus of pteranodontoid pterosaur known from Lower Cretaceous rocks in northeastern China. It is notable for its unusual skull, which features a crest on the lower jaw.

 Ikrandraco is based on IVPP V18199, a partial skeleton including the skull and jaws, several neck vertebrae, a partial sternal plate, parts of both wings, and part of a foot. A second specimen, IVPP 18406, has also been assigned to Ikrandraco; it consists of a skull and jaws and the first three neck vertebrae. Both specimens come from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Liaoning, with an estimated date of 120 million years ago. The type and only described species is I. avatar, a second reference to the movie Avatar. It was described in 2014 by Xiaolin Wang and colleagues.

 Ikrandraco is notable for having a very long, low skull (the height of the back of the skull, at the quadrates, is less than 19% the length of the skull), with a prominent blade-like crest on the underside of the lower jaw and no corresponding crest on the tip of the upper jaw, a crest combination not seen in other pterosaurs to date. The posterior edge of the crest also has a hook-like process. Each side of the upper jaw has at least 21 small cylindrical teeth, and each side of the lower jaw has at least 19. The skull of the type specimen is 286.5 millimetres (11.28 in) long, and the skull of the second specimen is at least 268.3 millimetres (10.56 in) long.

 Wang et al. performed a phylogenetic analysis including Ikrandraco and found it to be a basal pteranodontoid, more derived than Pteranodon but not as derived as the istiodactylids, anhanguerids, and other pteranodontoids.

 Wang et al. interpreted the crest as a possible adaptation for skim fishing, although they did not regard this as the animal's main method of foraging. The hook on the crest may have been an attachment point for a throat pouch for storing food, akin to a pelican. Ikrandraco was an approximate contemporary of distantly related anhanguerids Liaoningopterus gui and Guidraco venator, and all three are regarded as piscivores, but Ikrandraco differed from them in its much smaller and less robust teeth, indicating it had a different niche.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеранодонтойды, птеродактили, птерозавры

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 Europejara is a genus of tapejarid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Spain.

 In 2012, the type species Europejara olcadesorum was named and described by Romain Vullo, Jesús Marugán-Lobón, Alexander Kellner, Angela Buscalioni, Bernard Gomez, Montserrat de la Fuente and José Moratalla. The generic name combines the names of Europe and the related genus Tapejara, in reference to the fact that Europejara is the first tapejarid found in that continent. The specific name refers to the Olcades, the Celtiberic tribe inhabiting the region of Cuenca, the location of the find, in Antiquity.

 The holotype, MCCM-LH 9413, was uncovered at the Las Hoyas site in a chalkstone layer of the Calizas de La Huergina Formation dating from the late Barremian. It consists of a partial skull with lower jaws, compressed on a slab and counterslab. Two elements of the hyoid are present also. The skull has been vertically crushed, the lower jaws horizontally. The specimen was prepared by Mercedes Llandres Serrano, and is part of the Las Hoyas collection of the Museo de las Ciencias de Castilla–La Mancha.

 Europejara is a relatively small form with an estimated wingspan of two metres. The jaws are toothless and the lower jaws bear a large downwards pointing crest.

 The describers established three autapomorphies, unique derived traits. The crest on the lower jaws is curved to the back. The crest is deeper than its base, measured from the front to the back, is wide. The crest is four times deeper than the back of the jaw. Two other diagnostic traits were indicated: the inner side of the lower jaw is thickened, causing a convex curvature; the inner side shows some shallow, but well-demarcated, depressions.

 Due to the crushing of the skull, its fragments, mainly representing elements from the area around the right eye socket, show little detail. The lower jaws have a preserved length of twenty-three centimetres and an estimated original length of 255 millimetres. In their front parts the lower jaws are fused by a symphysis into a mandibula. The symphysis has a concave upper profile and features a large crest on the underside, pointing downwards for at least nine centimetres. The back edge of the crest is recurved; the curvature of the front edge cannot be exactly established because of damage. The crest is the longest relative to lower jaw length of any known pterosaur. The internal bone structure of the crest is spongy. The rod-like first ceratobranchialia pair of the hyoid have a length of 135 millimetres and a cross-section of two millimetres.

 Europejara was assigned to the Tapejaridae. A cladistic analysis showed it to be more precisely a member of the Tapejarinae. Apart from being the first tapejarid known from Europe, it would also be the oldest pterosaur with certainty known to be edentulous; older fragments have been reported representing other generally toothless clades but these did not include the jaws themselves.

 Following earlier suggestions about the diet of tapejarids, the describers assumed a frugivorous lifestyle for Europejara. Because the species is so old it indicates a rôle for the tapejarids in the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution, a turn-over in the ecosystems of the Lower Cretaceous in which gymnosperms were replaced by angiosperms, flowering plants, and new groups of herbivores evolved, adapted to the changed food supply. In the case of tapejarids there could have been a reinforcing interactive cycle between the evolution of fruit and the pterosaurs dispersing the seed. Possibly the beaks of the tapejarids had ragged edges forming pseudo-teeth to better separate the fruit flesh from the seeds, as with some extant toucans.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, аждархойды, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеродактили, птерозавры, тапежариды

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 Caiuajara is an extinct genus of tapejarid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. It is known from a single type species, Caiuajara dobruskii.

 In 1971, the labourers Alexandre Dobruski and his son João Gustavo Dobruski found pterosaur fossils in a field near Cruzeiro do Oeste in the south of Brazil, in the state of Paraná. The finds were in 2011 brought to the attention of paleontologists Paulo C. Manzig and Luiz C. Weinschütz.

 In 2014, the type species Caiuajara dobruskii was named and described by Paulo Manzig, Alexander Kellner, Luiz Weinschütz, Carlos Fragoso, Cristina Vega, Gilson Guimarães, Luiz Godoy, Antonio Liccardo, João Ricetti and Camila de Moura. The generic name refers to the geological Caiuá Group and the related genus Tapejara. The specific name honours the discoverers.

 The holotype, CP.V 1449, was found in a sandstone layer of the Goio-Erê Formation, the age of which is uncertain; it is perhaps dating from the Coniacian-Campanian, very roughly about eighty-five million years old. It consists of a partial skeleton including the skull, lower jaws, neck vertebrae and wing elements. Many hundreds of bones have been discovered, concentrated in several bone beds, and representing at least forty-seven individuals but probably many more. In the total assembly, all elements of the skeleton are present. The bones have been three-dimensionally preserved, not compressed, but are only rarely articulated. The individuals found are often juveniles; adult animals are much rarer, only represented by two skulls and three humeri. Good specimens have been assigned as paratypes, the more fragmentary ones have been referred.

 The paratypes are: CP.V 865: a snout, rear of the mandibula, right jugal, vertebrae, ribs and metatarsals; CP.V 867: a snout and limb bones; CP.V 868: a snout, wing elements and other postcrania; CP.V 869: a vertebral column, right arm, coracoid, breastbone, wing phalanges, belly ribs, pelvic elements and a right tighbone; CP.V 870: a shoulder girdle with the humeri; CP.V 871: a right shoulder girdle with right arm elements; CP.V 872: s partial skeleton including the skull, lower jaws, right arm, neck vertebrae and additional limb elements; CP.V 873: a snout and finger phalanges; CP.V 999: a partial skull; CP.V 1001: a slab with a partial skull, lower jaws and postcrania of at least three individuals; CP.V 1003: a partial skull and symphysis; CP.V 1004: a snout; CP.V 1005: a partial crested skull with the complete mandibula; CP.V 1006: a partial crested skull lacking the snout combined with postcrania; CP.V 1023: a snout and postcrania; CP.V 1024: a skull and postcrania of at least three juveniles; CP.V 1025: a thighbone; CP.V 1026: a thighbone; CP.V 1450: a slab containing at least fourteen juveniles; CP.V 2003: a skull with lower jaws and articulated wing elements; UEPG/DEGEO/MP-4151: a slab with two skulls and postcrania; and UEPG/DEGEO/MP-4152: a snout with postcrania.

 Most specimens are part of the collection of the Centro Paleontológico of the Universidade do Contestado.

 The largest individuals of Caiuajara had an estimated wingspan of 2.35 metres. The species had a large toothless head with, in adult individuals, an enormous shark fin-shaped crest on the snout.

 The describing authors established several distinguishing unique traits, autapomorphies. The tip of the snout is strongly oriented to below, at 142 to 149°, relative to the edge of the upper jaw. The rear ascending branches of the praemaxillae on their midline form an elongated bony rim projecting to below into the nasoantorbital fenestra, the large skull opening in the side of the snout. In the concave upper rear of the symphysis, the fronts of the lower jaws grown together, a rounded depression is present. The front outer edge of the quadrate shows a longitudinal groove. Below the front part of the nasoantorbital fenestra, a depression is present in the upper jaw edge.

 Additionally, Caiuajara shows an unique combination of traits that are themselves not unique. The lower edge of the eye socket is rounded. At a maximal occlusion, the gap between the upper and lower jaw is wider than with other tapejarines. The pteroid on its bottom surface shows a conspicuous depression lacking a pneumatic opening.

 Caiuajara was assigned to the Tapejaridae, more precisely the Tapejarinae. It shares several traits with the tapejarids, such as a crest running from the front snout to the back of the head; an elongated nasoantorbital fenestra occupying over 40% of total skull length; and a large boss on the front edge of the coracoid. A typical tapejarine trait is the down-turned snout tip. A cladistic analysis showed that Caiuajara is a possible sister species of Tupandactylus. In 2014, Caiuajara was the geologically youngest known tapejarid (aside from the possible tapejarid Bakonydraco galaczi) and also the most southern one known. This expansion of their known range was seen as an indication that tapejarids had a global distribution. Moreover, Caiuajara is the first pterosaur found in the south of Brazil.

 The habitat of Caiuajara was a desert with dunes. The layers in which the fossils were found had been deposited in a lake in the desert; probably the bones had been exposed at the surface around the lake for a time and were then by storms blown into it, eventually sinking to the bottom. Possibly the same storms caused many individuals to die together; this could also have been the result of droughts. A succession of layers shows that the lake was likely inhabited by the pterosaurs for a great length of time, although it is also possible they visited the lake during regular migrations. Fossil plants — tapejarids are often assumed to have been herbivores — have not been found, so there are no direct indications about the food source. Likewise, remains of invertebrates have not been discovered.

 The large concentrations of fossils, among pterosaurs very rare and only equalled by those found of the Argentine form Pterodaustro, were by the describers seen as proof of a gregarious lifestyle, Caiuajara living in colonies. The many specimens also allowed to determine a growth series, the first such an ontogenetic sequence for pterosaurs of which it is nearly certain that it really represented a single species. The age of the exemplars can be determined, not just from size but also by the degree of ossification, especially of the breastbone, the long bones and the wrist, and the fusion of the shoulder blade and coracoid into a scapulocoracoid. It showed that juvenile individuals, the smallest specimens of which have a wingspan of about sixty-five centimetres, generally had the same proportions as adults. Especially important is that their humeri are not proportionally smaller and their humeral deltopectoral crests, the attachments of the main flight muscles, are not less developed, attaining a size of 38 to 40% of the humeral shaft length. This suggests that they were precocial, taking wing almost as soon as they hatched; parental care must have been limited. This might have been typical of all derived pterosaurs. The snout crest however, strongly changed during growth. It became much taller and also much more steeply inclined, from about 115° to 90°. Although the snout as a whole also became more massive, the snout tip inclination relative to the jaw edge remained the same. At the back of the skull an additional projection developed. Furthermore the dentary crest on the lower jaw strongly increased in size. No specimens have been found lacking the snout crest, indicating that Caiuajara was in this respect not sexually dimorphic and casting doubt on the hypothesis that pterosaurs normally were.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, аждархойды, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеродактили, птерозавры, тапежариды

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 Hamipterus is an extinct genus of pteranodontoid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of northwestern China. It is known from a single type species, Hamipterus tianshanensis.

 Уникальную находку сделали китайские палеонтологи, изучающие ископаемую фауну хребта Тянь-Шань. Среди десятков скелетов нового вида птерозавров они обнаружили несколько сохранивших свою исходную форму яиц этих рептилий. Ничего подобного ученый мир до сих пор не видел.

 Пять продолговатых яиц небольшого размера стали настоящей сенсацией. До сих пор науке были известны лишь четыре птерозавровых яйца, причем все они в процессе окаменения были смяты в лепешку. Обнаруженные же на южных склонах Тянь-Шаня яйца исключительно хорошо сохранились и внешне напоминают яйца некоторых современных змей и ящериц, рассказали ученые.

 Вместе с ними были обнаружены и остатки по меньшей мере 40 особей нового вида птерозавров, названного Hamipterus tianshanensis. "Большинство окаменелостей оказались относительно нетронутыми, что благоприятствовало сборам полных скелетов этих птерозавров", – рассказал палеонтолог Ван Сяолинь, автор открытия. Как показали его исследования, хамиптерусы достигали четырех метров в размахе крыльев, имели заостренные зубы и удлиненный череп с гребнем на макушке. Кроме того, самцы и самки различались своим внешним видом, являясь довольно редким в каменной летописи примером полового диморфизма. Питались эти птерозавры, по всей вероятности, рыбой.

 "Данные окаменелости проливают свет на репродуктивную стратегию, онтогенез и поведение птерозавров, – констатируют авторы исследования. – Они демонстрируют половой диморфизм, благодаря которому самцы и самки отличались размерами гребня, его формой и прочностью... Мы полагаем, что эти новые птерозавры образовывали колонии и обладали стайным поведением, которое, возможно, являлось общим трендом, по крайней мере, для птеродактилоидных птерозавров".

 Директор Института палеонтологии позвоночных и палеоантропологии Китайской академии наук Чжунхэ Чжоу назвал место находки Hamipterus tianshanensis "самым важным местонахождением птерозавров изо всех когда-либо найденных".

 Исходя из характера отложений, исследователи полагают, что крупная колония птерозавров была уничтожена сильным штормом, разразившимся в этих местах в начале мелового периода, около 120 млн лет назад. До этой катастрофы летающие ящеры большой шумной колонией населяли окрестности живописного озера.

 "Это настоящий почетный трофей, который может считаться одним из лучших среди известных находок птерозавров. Он превращает эти места в основной район для исследований этих животных, – рассказал доктор Дэйв Хон. – Имеющиеся данные, естественно, на сегодняшний день далеко не полны, но сам факт находки вместе остатков многочисленных особей и яиц зафиксирован впервые в истории".

 По предварительным оценкам, в этих местах могут быть найдены остатки и других меловых позвоночных, в том числе и птиц.

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 Moganopterus is an extinct genus of boreopterid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of western Liaoning Province, China.

 The fossil of Moganopterus was discovered at the village of Xiaosanjiazi near the town of Lamadong in Liaoning Province. In 2012 it was named and described by Lü Junchang, Pu Hanyong, Xu Li, Wu Yanhua and Wei Xuefang as the type species Moganopterus zhuiana. The generic name is derived from the legendary sword couple Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, in reference to the blade-like jaws, and a Latinised Greek πτερόν, pteron, "wing". The specific name honours Ms. Zhu Haifen, who made the specimen available to science.

 The holotype, 41HIII0419, was uncovered in a layer of the Yixian Formation, dating from the Aptian, about 125 million years old. It consists of an almost complete skull with lower jaws and the second to fourth neck vertebrae. The fossil is compressed on a slab and counterslab, the splitting of the two plates having damaged some bones. The specimen is part of the collection of the Geological Museum of Henan.

 Moganopterus is a large pterosaur. The skull has a preserved length of about ninety-five centimetres and the longest preserved neck vertebra, the fourth, a length of 14.5 centimetres. The skull is the largest known of any toothed pterosaur. The size of skull and neck indicates a wing span of at least five metres and probably of over 7 metres (23 ft), making Moganopterus one of the largest known pterosaurs.

 Apart from the size, the describers established some diagnostic traits. The jaws are very elongated and have straight edges. The total number of teeth in the skull is at least sixty-two. The large skull opening, the fenestra nasoantorbitalis, is rectangular and represents 22% of the snout length. The back of the skull bears a long and narrow parietal crest, sticking out at an angle of 15° to the longitudinal skull axis. Not taking into account the crest, the skull is 11.5 times longer than tall. The neck vertebrae are five times longer than high.

 Moganopterus shows an extreme elongation of the upper and lower jaws. The back of the skull is just six centimetres high and its top gradually descends towards the pointed snout tip. On the front of the snout a low triangular crest is present, five centimetres long and six millimetres tall. The profile of the skull is continued by a narrow crest sticking out at the back. It is unknown whether this crest was flat or rod-like; its length cannot be determined because it reaches the edge of the slabs. The lower jaws, lacking a keel, have a length of 68.5 centimetres. They are about as tall as the snout and have a pointed tip.

 The jaws are lined with long conical pointed teeth, up to thirty-one millimetres in length, slightly recurved and more or less oriented vertically. The describers estimated there were fifteen teeth in the upper jaw and seventeen in the lower jaw for a total of sixty-four, which closely matches the number of sixty-two actually found. The teeth rows stretch from the very front of the head until the back edge of the fenestra nasoantorbitalis. They are associated with oblique cellular structures visible in the bone of the upper and lower jaws, the nature of which has not been determined. Hollow structures, reinforced by struts, can also be seen in the parietal crest and the vertebrae. The preserved neck vertebrae have a length of eleven millimetres, eleven centimetres and 14.5 centimetres respectively. The fourth cervical is 7.25 times as long as it is tall.

 Moganopterus was in 2012 assigned to the Boreopteridae, forming a Moganopterinae with its sister taxon Feilongus.

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 Volgadraco ("Volga River dragon") is a genus of azhdarchid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of European Russia. It is known from lower beak (holotype SGU, no. 46/104a) and postcranial fragments from the early Campanian-age Rybushka Formation of Saratov, Russia. The size of this animal, and the development of blood supply in the lower jaw, are intermediate between older Santonian or Turonian azhdarchids like Azhdarcho and Bakonydraco and later Maastrichtian azhdarchids like Quetzalcoatlus. Volgadraco was described in 2008 by Averianov, Arkhangelsky, and Pervushov. The type species is V. bogolubovi, the specific name honouring Russian paleontologist Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogolubov. The authors consider the earlier named genus Bogolubovia to be a nomen dubium that in fact might be identical to Volgadraco.

 Ученые из Саратовского государственного технического университета во время полевых работ в верхнемеловых отложениях южной части саратовского правобережья обнаружили кости летающих ящеров-птерозавров. 

"По мнению ведущего российского специалиста по птерозаврам профессора Александра Аверьянова (Зоологический институт РАН, Санкт-Петербург), кости относятся к представителям семейства аждархид. Это самые крупные летающие создания на нашей планете, обитавшие в конце мелового периода. 

 Как выяснилось, ранее останки Volgadraco bogolubovi «Волжский дракон Боголюбова» уже находили. Они являлись самыми крупными летающими созданиями на нашей планете, обитавшими в конце мелового периода. Их размах крыльев был более 10 метров и пропитание они добывали, пикируя на поверхностью водоемов, высматривая рыбу плавающую на небольшой глубине.

 Новые находки были сделаны доцентом кафедры "Геоэкология и инженерная геология" Саратовского технического университета Максимом Архангельским и участником исследовательской группы "Искатели" Сергеем Меркуловым. 

 "Вместе с останками птерозавров обнаружены и кости морских рептилий - плезиозавров, мозазавров и черепах. В ближайшее время экспедиционные работы по сбору ископаемых останков мезозойских рептилий будут продолжены", - цитирует сообщение РИА "Новости".

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, аждархиды, аждархойды, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеродактили, птерозавры

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 Zhejiangopterus is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur known from one species, which lived in China during the late Cretaceous Period.

 The genus was named in 1994 by Chinese paleontologists Cai Zhengquan and Wei Feng. The type species is Zhejiangopterus linhaiensis. The genus name refers to Zhejiang Province and a Latinised Greek pteron, "wing". The specific name refers to the city of Linhai.

 In 1986 a young chalkstone quarry worker named Xu Chengfa, found a large fossil near the village of Aolicun. Xu by letter informed the director of the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History at Hangzhou, Ming Hua, who from it understood the remains were those of an unknown pterosaur. Therefore he sent a team consisting of the describers and Wu Weitang to investigate. They secured the fossil, instructing the local population to be alert for possible further finds. Xu himself managed to find three more specimens before being killed in an accident in 1988; another worker found a complete skull.

 In the early nineties in total six larger fossils had been recovered from the Tangshang Formation, an 81.5 million year old layer from the Campanian. Among those was the holotype, ZMNH M1330, the impression of the skull of a juvenile individual. Several paratypes were referred: ZMNH M1325, a skeleton lacking the skull; ZMNH M1328, an almost complete skeleton and ZMNH M1329, a fragmentary skeleton.

 Zhejiangopterus was a moderately large pterosaur. Its wingspan was first estimated at 5 metres (16.4 feet). Later estimates reduced this to about 3.5 metres (11.5 ft). Its skull was long, low, perfectly arched, and lacked a "keel" or any other crest sometimes seen in related species. The nasal opening and the large opening typically present between the nose and eye openings of archosaurs (the "antorbital fenestra") had joined together in species such as this to create a single oval opening that occupied nearly one half the length of the skull. The beak was long, thin, sharply pointed, and lacked teeth. The cervical vertebrae were elongated. The first six dorsal vertebrae had fused into a notarium. Several pairs of belly ribs were preserved. Its upper leg bone was half the size of its upper arm bone, and strong and thin. The wings were short but robust.

 Zhejiangopterus was by the original describers classified as a member of the Nyctosauridae, because of the two edentulous pterosaurs they possessed good descriptions of, Pteranodon and Nyctosaurus, it showed the most resemblance to the latter. They deplored lacking good data on Quetzalcoatlus. Indeed in 1997 David Unwin determined that Zhejiangopterus was more closely related to this giant American form and thus belonged to the Azhdarchidae. No other azhdarchid is known from such complete skeletal material.

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 Tupuxuara is a genus of large, crested, toothless pterodactyloid pterosaur.

 The genus was named and described by Alexander Kellner and Diógenes de Almeida Campos in 1988. The type species is Tupuxuara longicristatus. The genus name refers to a familiar spirit from the mythology of the Tupi. The specific name means "long-crested" in Latin.

 The holotype, MN 6591-V, was found in the Cretaceous Santana Formation of Brazil. It consists of a snout and some partial wing bones. Mature individuals of T. longicristatus had a back-swept crest arising from the snout. Much more fossil material has later been found, showing considerable variation in morphology. Some researchers explain this as intra-specific variability, being caused by a difference in age or sex. Others, however, assume there are different species present.

 In 1994 a second species was named by Kellner: Tupuxuara leonardii. The specific name honours Giuseppe Leonardi. The holotype is MN 6592-V, a fragmentary skull with a more rounded crest. Other such material has been referred to T. leonardii. The largest skulls have a length of 130 centimetres indicating a wingspan of 5.5 metres (18 ft).

 In 2009 a third species was named, by Mark Paul Witton: Tupuxuara deliridamus. The holotype is SMNK PAL 6410, a skull. Another skull is the paratype: KPMNH DL 84. The specific name is derived from Latin delirus, "insane" or "crazy", and adamas, "invincible" but also the word from which "diamond" is derived. The species has a distinctive diamond-shaped skull opening and low eye sockets. The name is a tribute to the song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd, one of Witton's favourite bands.

 Tupuxuara is a member of the group Azhdarchoidea. Kellner assigned it to the Tapejaridae within Azhdarchoidea. According to some analyses however, Tupuxuara is closer to the Azhdarchidae (the group that includes the giant Texan form Quetzalcoatlus) than to Tapejara and its relatives.

 It has been suggested that Tupuxuara was a fish eater at the coasts of South America. Other hypotheses include the possibility it was a fruit eater.

 A subadult described by David Martill and Darren Naish from the University of Portsmouth in 2006 had not yet fully developed its crest, which supports the suggestion that the crest was a marker for sexual maturity.

 Comparisons between the scleral rings of Tupuxuara and modern birds and reptiles suggest that it may have been diurnal.

 Для чего доисторическим летающим рептилиям были нужны гребни на головах, выяснили британские ученые - команда палеонтологов во главе с доктором Дэрреном Нэйшем из университета Портсмута.

 Редкий экземпляр черепа, найденный в Бразилии, "рассказал" исследователям, что гребень использовался птерозаврами для привлечения внимания противоположного пола - существа щеголяли своим "головным убором", демонстрируя половую зрелость. Современные павлины с той же целью используют хвост.

 "Эта поразительная структура яркого цвета походила на гребень гигантского петуха. Мы не знаем этого наверняка, но полагаем, что гребень применялся для привлечения других птерозавров", - сообщил Нэйш.

 Свою теорию ученые основывают на исследовании черепа представителя вида, известного как тупуксуара (Tupuxuara). Как оказалось, этот череп принадлежал птерозавру-подростку.

 Вместо единого большого треугольного гребня от морды до затылка у "юнца" гребень состоял из двух частей, растущих навстречу друг другу. Палеонтологи считают, что когда эти части соединялись, птерозавр достигал половой зрелости. И это становилось заметным для потенциальных партнеров.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, аждархойды, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеродактили, птерозавры, талассодромиды, тапежариды

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 Tupandactylus (meaning "Tupan finger", in reference to the Tupi thunder god) is a genus of tapejarid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil. It is notable for its large cranial crest, composed partly of bone and partly of soft tissue. The Tupandactylus genus possibly contains two species, both bearing differently sized/shaped crests that may have been used to signal and display for other Tupandactylus, much as toucans use their bright bills to signal to one another. Tupandactylus crests consisted of a semicircular crest over the snout, and in the case of the type species T. imperator, a bony prong which extended back behind the head. A second species, T. navigans, lacked this prong, and had a much more vertical crest. Soft tissue impressions also show that the small bony crests were extended by a much larger structure made of a keratinous material. The complete crest of T. navigans rose in a sharp, sail-like "dome" high above the rest of the skull.

 Tupandactylus imperator is known from four nearly complete skulls. The holotype specimen is MCT 1622-R, a skull and partial lower jaw, found in the Crato Formation, dating to the boundary of the Aptian-Albian stages of the early Cretaceous period, about 112 Ma ago. It was initially described as a species of Tapejara, but later research has indicated it warrants its own genus. The skull was toothless and had a prominent sagittal crest, only the base of which was bony: the front of the crest featured a tall bony rod extending up and back, and the rear of the crest had a long prong of bone projecting behind it. The bulk of the crest was made up of soft tissue similar to keratin, supported by the two bony struts. An additional skull described in 2011, specimen CPCA 3590, preserved more of the lower jaw, showing that like Tapejara, T. imperator had a large, asymmetrical "keel"-like crest on the underside of the lower jaw tip.

 Some Tupandactylus specimens preserve evidence of a keratinous beak at the jaw tips. However, this was restricted to the crested portion of the lower jaw, as one specimen also preserves pycnofibres (simple feather-like filaments) covering the jaws further back.

 Beginning in 2006, several researchers, including Kellner and Campos (who named Tupandactylus), had found that the three species traditionally assigned to the genus Tapejara (T. wellnhofferi, T. imperator, and T. navigans) are in fact distinct both in anatomy and in their relationships to other tapejarid pterosaurs, and thus needed to be given new generic names. However, just how the species should be split proved controversial. Kellner and Campos considered only T. imperator to warrant a new name, creating Tupandactylus. However, another study published in 2007 by Unwin and Martill found that T. navigans, previously assigned to Tapejara, was actually most closely related to T. imperator and belonged with it in a new genus separate from Tapejara. In 2007, at a symposium held in honor of renowned pterosaur researcher Peter Wellnhofer, Unwin and Martill announced the new genus name Ingridia, in honor of Wellnhofer's late wife Ingrid. However, when they published this name in a 2007 volume, they assigned imperator as the type species of their new genus, rather than navigans, which they also included as a species of Ingridia. Furthermore, Unwin and Martill's paper was not published until several months after the similar paper by Kellner and Campos. Therefore, because both sets of authors used imperator as the type, Ingridia is considered a junior objective synonym of Tupandactylus. It was not until 2011 that T. navigans was formally reclassified in the genus Tupandactylus, in a subsequent study supporting the conclusions of Unwin and Martill in 2007.

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Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, аждархойды, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеродактили, птерозавры, тапежариды

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 Tropeognathus is a genus of large pterosaurs from the late Cretaceous Period of South America. It was member of the Ornithocheiridae (alternately Anhangueridae), a group of pterosaurs known for their keel-tipped snouts, and was closely related to species of the genus Anhanguera. It is known primarily for the species Tropeognathus mesembrinus, though a second species, Tropeognathus robustus, has been named in the genus.

 In the 1980s the German Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und historische Geologie at Munich acquired a pterosaur skull from Brazilian fossil dealers, that had probably been found in Ceará, in the Chapade do Araripe. In 1987 it was named and described as the type species Tropeognathus mesembrinus by Peter Wellnhofer. The generic name is derived from Greek τρόπις, tropis, "keel", and γνάθος, gnathos, "jaw". The specific name is derived from Koine mesembrinos, "of the noontide", "southern", in reference to the provenance from the Southern hemisphere.

 The holotype, BSP 1987 I 46, was discovered in a layer of the Romualdo Member of the Santana Formation, dating from the Aptian-Albian. It consists of a skull with lower jaws. A second specimen was referred by André Jacques Veldmeijer in 2002: SMNS 56994, consisting of partial lower jaws. In 2013, Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner referred a third, larger, specimen: MN 6594-1, a skeleton with skull, with extensive elements of all body parts, except the tail and the lower hindlimbs.

 After Tropeognathus mesembrinus was named by Peter Wellnhofer in 1987 other researchers tended to consider it part of several other genera, leading to an enormous taxonomic confusion. It was considered an Anhanguera mesembrinus by Alexander Kellner in 1989, a Coloborhynchus mesembrinus by Veldmeijer in 1998 and a Criorhynchus mesembrinus by Michael Fastnacht in 2001. In 2001, David Unwin referred the Tropeognathus material to Ornithocheirus simus, making Tropeognathus mesembrinus a junior synonym, though he again reinstated a Ornithocheirus mesembrinus in 2003. Veldmeijer in 2003 accepted that Tropeognathus and Ornithocheirus were cogeneric but rejecting O. simus as the type species of Ornithocheirus in favor of O. compressirostris (named Lonchodectes by Unwin), used the names Criorhynchus simus and Criorhynchus mesembrinus. In 2000, Kellner again began to use the original name Tropeognathus mesembrinus. In 2013, Taissa Rodrigues and Kellner concluded Tropeognathus to be valid, and containing only T. mesembrinus.

 In 1987 Wellnhofer named a second species, Tropeognathus robustus, based on specimen BSP 1987 I 47, a more robust lower jaw. Today, this is no longer considered cogeneric with Tropeognathus mesembrinus.

 Tropeognathus mesembrinus is known to have reached wingspans of up to 8.2 m (27 ft), as can be inferred from the size of specimen MN 6594-1. T. mesembrinus bore distinctive convex "keeled" crests on its snout and underside of the lower jaws. The upper crests arose from the snout tip and extended back to the fenestra nasoantorbitalis, the large opening in the skull side. An additional, smaller crest projected down from the lower jaws at their symphysis ("chin" area). While many ornithocheirids had a small, rounded bony crest projecting from the back of the skull, this was particularly large and well-developed in Tropeognathus. The first five dorsal vertebrae are fused in to a notarium. Five sacral vertebrae are fused into a synsacrum. The third and fourth sacral vertebrae are keeled. The front blade of the ilium is strongly directed upwards.

 In 1987 Wellnhofer assigned Tropeognathus to a Tropeognathidae. This concept was not adopted by other workers; Brazilian researchers place Tropeognathus mesembrinus in the Anhangueridae, their European colleagues tend to prefer the Ornithocheiridae.

 Тропеогнат был одним из крупнейших птерозавров мелового периода и ярким представителем группы Ornithocheiridae, отличавшихся своим крупными килеобразными выростами на конце челюстей от других птеродактилей.

 Впервые тропеогнат был описан в 1980 г., когда немецкий музей Bayerische Staatssammlung fur Palaontologie und Historische Geologie выкупил у бразильских продавцов окаменелостей огромного летающего ящера, который был обнаружен в местонахождении Сеара на севере Бразилии. Вид в 1987 г. получил типовое наименование Tropeognathus mesembrinus.

 Тропеогнаты достигали достаточно внушительных размеров: размах крыльев этих ящеров достигал 8,2 метров. Как отмечалось ранее, отличительная черта орнитохейрид: килевые гребни на конце морды, верхний из которых шел от конца челюсти и до начала анторбитального отверстия (antorbitalis fenestra). Нижний гребень был немного меньше и представлял собой расширение подбородочной кости.

 Грудные позвонки у тропеогната были мощными и были слиты в единый костный выступ, поддерживающий объемные мышечные маховые связки. Крестцовые позвонки также слиты в одно костное образование.

 В сериале ВВС «Прогулки с динозаврами» одна из серий посвящена жизни летающего гиганта Ornithocheirus, который, на самом деле, является представителем Tropeognathus mesembrinus. В сериале использовались данные по окаменелостям летающего ящера, обнаруженного в 1998 г. на севере Бразилии. Расчетные показатели свидетельствовали о том, что этот бразильский гигант мог достигать размаха крыльев в 12 метров и был весом до 100 кг, что делало его одним из самых крупных обнаруженных птерозавров.

 Однако типовые экземпляры Ornithocheirus не превышают 6 метров в размахе крыльев. Окаменелости из Бразилии еще находились на стадии изучения и только в 2012 г. Дэйв Мартилл и Хайнц Петер Бредов опубликовали окончательную оценку размеров найденной особи, согласно которой этот экземпляр тропеогната не мог превышать 8,2 м. в размахе крыльев. Х.П. Бредов пояснил: «Вероятно, при работе над сериалом были использованы самые максимальные из возможных показателей, чтобы сериал казался более захватывающим и зрелищным».

 У этих летающих ящеров был достаточно развит половой диморфизм: самки были мельче в размерах и имели менее выраженные выросты на челюстях.

 Анализ строения нижних конечностей тропеогната свидетельствует о том, что этот птерозавр вполне был способен перемещаться по плоской поверхности, а не только по скальным выступам и утесам, как большинство других птерозавров.

 Длинные, острые и изогнутые зубы, разного размера говорят о рыбоядной специализации тропеогната. Предполагается, что ящер парил над поверхностью воды, вылавливая рыбу из верхних слоев океана, причем в данном случае, выступающие гребни на челюстях служили своеобразным стабилизатором при полете.

 В меловом периоде птерозавры, в целом, характеризуются увеличением своих размеров, размах крыльев некоторых видов достигает поистине неимоверных величин, в то же самое время видовое разнообразие летающих ящеров становится очень разнообразным. Поэтому тропеогнат, наряду с гигантскими аждархидами, является ярким представителем гигантизма и разнообразия летающих ящеров в меловом периоде.

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 Талассодромеус (Thalassodromeus sethi, от др.-греч. θαλασσο- +δρομεύς «морской бегун», sethi — от имени Сета, из-за формы гребня) — птеродактиль из раннего мела Бразилии (формация Сантана, возраст около 122 − 109 млн.л.н.). Описан А. Келльнером и Д. Кампосом в 2002 году. Длина черепа до 1420 мм, череп высокий, имеется огромный затылочный гребень. Гребень очень тонкий, со следами кровеносных сосудов. Возможно, он служил для терморегуляции и для брачной демонстрации. На нижней челюсти в подбородочной области имеется небольшой вырост, который мог служить своеобразным килем-рассекателем, когда птерозавр опускал нижнюю челюсть в воду во время охоты. Способ питания талассодромеуса мог быть сходен со способом питания чаек-водорезов. Ящер летел низко над водой и опущенной нижней челюстью «резал» воду, выхватывая мелкую живность. В отличие от водорезов, талассодромеус мог достигать 4,5 метров в размахе крыльев. Это самое крупное известное животное, питавшееся по типу водореза. Тем не менее, недавние опыты на натурных моделях показали, что подобный способ питания для столь крупного животного был бы невозможен — челюсть создавала бы такое сопротивление, что ящер не мог бы удержать себя в воздухе. Родственные связи талассодромеуса не вполне ясны, он может быть родственником птеродактилей-тупуксар. В свою очередь, тупуксары близки к аждархидам.

 Thalassodromeus was a large pterodactyloid pterosaur found in northeastern Brazil.

 The genus was named in 2002 by Alexander Kellner and Diogenes de Almeida Campos. The type species is Thalassodromeus sethi. The genus name is derived from Greek thalasse, "sea" and dromaios, "runner", in reference to its presumed life style as a skimmer. The specific name refers to the Egyptian god Seth because of the similarity in head form. In 2006 André Jacques Veldmeijer suggested Kellner had confused Seth with the god Amun whose crown shows a remarkable resemblance with the Thalassodromeus head crest.

 The genus is based on holotype DGM 1476-R, a damaged partial skull, found in the Santana Formation. Thalassodromeus lived in the Early Cretaceous, roughly 108 million years ago. It shared the skies with its smaller cousin Tapejara. It is particularly notable for its immense head crest, beginning at the tip of the snout and ending far behind the braincase, which accounts for seventy-five percent of the surface of its 1.42 metre (4.6 ft) long skull. The jaws were pointed and toothless. It had a wing span of roughly 4.5 metres (14.7 ft). The function of the crest is unknown, but it may have been used for sexual display, species recognition, or thermoregulation. A lower jaw fragment referred to Thalassodromeus, DGM 1476-M, indicates a larger example with a wingspan of 5.3 metres (17.4 ft).

 Another jaw fragment, SAO 251093, was unofficially suggested to be a new species, "Thalassodromeus oberli" (referring to the Urs Oberli collection), by Veldmeijer in 2006, after having referred the specimen to T. sethi in 2005. In 2014 this was made a separate genus Banguela.

 Thalassodromeus was believed by Kellner to have fed in a similar way to modern skimmers; trailing its lower jaw in the water while it flew. However, later research on its jaw and neck anatomy suggested that for this and other larger pterosaurs it would not be feasible to skim because of the drag: the energy expenditure would be too high. Rather, Thalassodromeus appears to have had specialisation for terrestrial foraging like Azhdarchidae, even converging on leg proportions, and it's powerful jaws might suggest raptorial tendencies akin to those of phorusrhacids.

 Kellner assigned Thalassodromeus to the Tapejaridae. Other analyses however, showed that it was, joined with Tupuxuara in a Thalassodrominae, more closely related to the Azhdarchidae.

 Thalassodromidae (meaning "sea runners") is a family of pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the early Cretaceous period of Brazil. It contains two genera, Thalassodromeus and Tupuxuara.

 The classification of thalassodromids is controversial. Some studies, including one by Lü and colleagues in 2008, have found that the thalassodromids are more closely related to the azhdarchids than to the tapejarids, and have placed them in their own family (which has sometimes been referred to as Tupuxuaridae, though Thalassodrominae was named first). Alternately, they have been considered a subfamily (Thalassodrominae) within the Tapejaridae.

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 Тапежара, или тапейяра (Tapejara — от тупийского «древнее существо») — род птерозавров, обитавших в раннем меловом периоде, 121—112 млн лет назад. Отличался причудливым гребнем на голове. Размах крыльев — до 5 м. Хищник. Ископаемые находки были найдены в Южной Америке (Бразилия).

 Тапежара — древнейший из известных ученым птерозавр с беззубым клювом. Его ископаемые останки были обнаружены в бразильских горах Сантана, содержащих окаменелости и многих других причудливых видов птерозавров. Родственные связи тапежары с многочисленными видами беззубых птерозавров позднего мелового периода изучены недостаточно.

 Крупный птерозавр тапежара охотился на рыбу у побережья Южной Америки в меловой период. Своей известностью тапежара обязана огромному, высотой до 1 м, гребню на голове. Гребень, которым обладали только самцы, доставлял животным большие неудобства: он делал их голову очень тяжёлой, а полёт медленным и неровным. Очевидно, ярко окрашенный гребень использовался самцами тапежары во время зрелищных брачных демонстраций и служил для привлечения самок. Также существует предположение Санкара Чхаттердже, что гребень при плавании в воде использовался в качестве своеобразного паруса.

 Тапежары гнездились крупными колониями недалеко от моря, где родители добывали корм для своих детёнышей.

 Tapejara (from a Tupi word meaning "the old being") is a genus of Brazilian pterosaur from the Cretaceous Period (Santana Formation, dating to about 108 Ma ago). Tapejara crests consisted of a semicircular crest over the snout, and a bony prong which extended back behind the head.

 The type species and only one currently recognized as valid by most researchers, T. wellnhoferi, is the smallest species to have been assigned to Tapejara and does not preserve evidence of soft-tissue crest extensions. The specific name honours German paleontologist Peter Wellnhofer. A second species, originally named Tapejara imperator ("emperor"), is much larger and possessed a crest made up of distinctively long prongs, projecting from the rounded snout crest and the back of the skull, which supported a large, possibly rounded sail-like crest of keratin. A third species, Tapejara navigans ("sailing"), was mid-sized and sported a similar crest to T. imperator, though narrower and more dome-shaped, that lacked the backwards-pointing bony support prong.

 Several studies in 2007 showed that T. imperator and T. navigans are too different from T. wellnhoferi and therefore require their own genus names. The species T. imperator was given its own genus, Tupandactylus, by Kellner and Campos. Unwin and Martill found that T. imperator and T. navigans belong in the same genus, and named them Ingridia imperator and I. navigans, respectively. The genus name honoured Wellnhofer's late wife Ingrid. Because Tupandactylus was named first, it retains priority over the name Ingridia. To complicate matters, both the name Tupandactylus and Ingridia used the former Tapejara imperator as their type species. The scientists who described Tupandactylus did not name a Tupandactylus navigans (but instead suggested it was synonymous to Tupandactylus imperator), and Tapejara navigans was not formally reclassified as a distinct species of Tupandactylus until 2011.

 Comparisons between the scleral rings of Tapejara and modern birds and reptiles suggest that it may have been cathemeral, active throughout the day at short intervals.

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 Sinopterus (meaning "Chinese wing") is a genus of tapejarid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Aptian-age Lower Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of Chaoyang, Liaoning, China. Three species have been classified in this genus, though only two are generally considered to be valid. Sinopterus is known for its proportionally large skull, which has a birdlike pointed beak, a long bony crest that starts with a tall premaxilla and goes back along the middle of the skull to form a point overhanging the rear of the skull, and its lack of teeth.

 The type species, S. dongi, is based on IVPP V13363, an articulated, nearly complete skeleton. The skull of this individual was 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) long, and the wingspan was estimated to be 1.2 meters (3.9 feet). The authors suggested that it was an omnivore, and noted that it was the first record of a tapejarid outside of Brazil, and the earliest and most complete tapejarid.

 A second species, S. gui, was named by Li, Lü, and Zhang in 2003 based on BPV-077, another nearly complete skeleton from the Jiufotang Formation. It was said to differ from S. dongi mainly in its smaller size (only about half the size of S. dongi) and the presence of a notarium, though this was later disproved. Most later studies have found S. gui to simply represent a younger specimen of S. dongi.

 A third species was referred to Sinopterus in 2007, S. jii. This species was first named by Lü & Yuan in 2005 as the type species of a new genus, which they named Huaxiapterus. However, two later studies in 2007 and 2011 both showed that H. jii was in fact more closely related to Sinopterus than to two other species also assigned to Huaxiapterus, "H." corollatus and "H." benxiensis. Both groups of researchers concluded that Huaxiapterus jii should therefore be reclassified as Sinopterus jii, and that the other two species of "Huaxiapterus" require a new genus name.

 Тапежариды (Tapejaridae Kellner, 1989, Tupuxuaridae Martill, Bechly & Heads, 2007) — семейство птерозавров раннего мелового периода. Известны находки из Китая и Бразилии. Роды из Китая более примитивны, что указывает на азиатское происхождение семейства.

 Филогения тапежарид остаётся спорной, имеется несколько конкурирующих кладограмм. В частности, нет общепринятой точки зрения на то, принадлежит ли талассодромеус к данному семейству.

 Tapejaridae (meaning "the old beings") are a family of pterodactyloid pterosaurs from the early Cretaceous period. Members are currently known from Brazil, Morocco, Spain and China, where the most primitive genera are found, indicating that the family has an Asian origin.

 Tapejarids were small to medium-sized pterosaurs with several unique, shared characteristics, mainly relating to the skull. Most tapejarids possessed a bony crest arising from the snout (formed mostly by the premaxillary bones of the upper jaw tip). In some species, this bony crest is known to have supported an even larger crest of softer, fibrous tissue that extends back along the skull. Tapejarids are also characterized by their large nasoantorbital fenestra, the main opening in the skull in front of the eyes, which spans at least half the length of the entire skull in this family. Their eye sockets were small and pear-shaped. Studies of tapejarid brain cases show that they had extremely good vision, more so than in other pterosaur groups, and probably relied nearly exclusively on vision when hunting or interacting with other members of their species. Tapejarids had unusually reduced shoulder girdles that would have been slung low on the torso, resulting in wings that protruded from near the belly rather than near the back, a "bottom decker" arrangement reminiscent of some planes.

 Tapejaridae may be composed of two subfamilies: a Tapejarinae of "Huaxiapterus" corollatus, Sinopterus, Tapejara, Tupandactylus, Europejara, Caiuajara, and possibly Bakonydraco, and a Thalassodrominae of Thalassodromeus and Tupuxuara. Some studies, such as one by Lü and colleagues in 2008, have found that the thalassodromines are more closely related to the azhdarchids proper than to the tapejarids, and have placed them in their own family (which has sometimes been referred to as Tupuxuaridae, though Thalassodrominae was named first). At least one study has also found that the Chaoyangopteridae, often found to be closer to azhdarchids, represent a lineage within the Tapejaridae, more closely related to the tapejarines than to the thalassodromines. Felipe Pinheiro and colleagues (2011) reclassified the group as a subfamily of Tapejaridae, Chaoyangopterinae, for this reason.

 The exact relationships of tapejarids to one another and to other azhdarchoid pterosaurs has historically been unclear, with different studies producing significantly different cladograms (family trees). It is also unclear exactly which pterosaurs belong to the Tapejaridae; some researchers have found the thalassodromines and chaoyangopterines to be members of this family, while other studies have found them to be more closely related to the azhdarchids (in the clade Neoazhdarchia). Some studies have even allowed the possibility that the "tapejarids" as traditionally thought of are paraphyletic, that is, they may not form a natural group but instead represent sequential branches of the tree leading to the more advanced neoazhdarchians.

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 Santanadactylus (meaning "Santana Formation finger") was a genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Aptian-age Romualdo Member of the Lower Cretaceous Santana Formation, of Barra do Jardim, Araripe Plateau, Ceará Province, Brazil. Four species have been named, but today it is doubted they are part of the same genus. It was a rather large pterosaur.

 The genus was named in 1980 by the Dutch paleontologist Paul de Buisonjé. The type species is S. brasilensis, the specific name referring to Brazil. It is based on holotype UvA M 4894 (Geological Institute of the University of Amsterdam), an upper part of the right humerus and a right scapulacoracoid; other remains were also included in the genus: this paratype consisted of two cervical vertebrae from a different individual, referred because they were found in the same lot of 25 chalk nodules bought from collectors. Additional remains, including a notarium (fused vertebrae supporting the shoulder) have been referred to it since then. The structure of the humerus suggests an ornithocheirid, but the long neck vertebrae argue against this.

 In 1985, Peter Wellnhofer, a German paleontologist who has written numerous scientific publications on pterosaurs, named three additional species: S. araripensis, S. pricei, and S. spixi. S. araripensis, named after the Araripe Plateau, was a large species based on BSP 1982 I 89, remains including a partial skull (missing the end of the jaws) and arms; the preserved skull section had no crest. S. pricei, named after Llewellyn Ivor Price, was the smallest of the three species; it was based on BSP 1980 I 122, a left wing from the elbow down, and additional arm material has been referred to it over the years. S. spixi, intermediate in size, was based on BSP 1980 I 121, another left wing, the name honouring Johann Baptist von Spix.

 Over the years, the species of this taxon have been reassessed. Chris Bennett suggested that S. brasilensis was a chimera of a pteranodontid and something else (in that the holotype and paratype belonged to different forms), S. araripensis and S. pricei were pteranodontids, and S. spixi was a dsungaripterid. Wellnhofer removed S. spixi from the genus as well, in 1991. In 1992, Alexander Kellner and Diogenes de Almeida Campos suggested that S. spixi was a tapejarid; David Unwin in 2003 thought that "Santanadactylus" spixi was a species of Tupuxuara. Kellner in 1990 renamed S. araripensis to Anhanguera araripensis, followed by Wang and colleagues in 2008, though Veldmeijer (2003) included it in Coloborhynchus. Part of the problem is the complicated taxonomy of Santana Formation pterosaurs and their English contemporaries, involving numerous genera, such as Amblydectes, Anhanguera, Araripesaurus, Criorhynchus, Coloborhynchus, Lonchodectes, Ornithocheirus, and Tropeognathus.

 Also the phylogeny is contentious. De Buisonjé first placed the genus into the Criorhynchidae, a concept that is no longer used. Wellnhofer considered it a member of the Ornithocheiridae. According to Bennett S. brasilensis belonged to Pteranodontidae sensu Bennett. Kellner, concluding that he could find but a single autapomorphy for Santanadactylus brasilensis, the straight ventral margin of the proximal part of the deltopectoral crest, at first thought no greater precision was possible than a Pterodactyloidae incertae sedis, but in 2000 narrowed it down to a Pteranodontoidea sensu Kellner. S. pricei according to Kellner belonged to a clade descending from the last common ancestor of Istiodactylus and the Anhangueridae. The same was in his analysis true for Araripesaurus, a genus of which he had previously thought S. pricei was a junior synonym.

 Santanadactylus is regarded as a large pterosaur, Wellnhofer for the various species indicating a wingspan of 2.9–5.7 m (9.5–18.7 ft). De Buisonjé thought Santanadactylus brasilensis had a wingspan of six metres. It may have been adapted for gliding over flapping flight.

 Ископаемые останки и реплики:

Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, птеродактили, птерозавры

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 Кетцалькоа́тль (Quetzalcoatlus) — крупнейший известный на сегодня представитель отряда птерозавров (Pterosauria). Типовой вид — Quetzalcoatlus northropi Lawson, 1975. Размах крыльев точно не известен из-за неполной сохранности останков, но по пропорциям птерозавров других видов оценивается приблизительно в 11 метров (по мнению некоторых палеонтологов — до 15 м). Обнаружен в позднемеловых отложениях Северной Америки. Время обитания — поздний меловой период, 68—65,5 миллионов лет назад.

 Весил, по разным оценкам, от 85 до 250 кг. Окаменелости кетцалькоатля обнаружены в Северной Америке. Название дано в честь ацтекского бога. В настоящее время кетцалькоатль вместе с другими гигантскими птерозаврами (Hatzegopteryx) являеся самым крупным известным летающим существом за всю историю жизни на планете. Кетцалькоатль и хатцегоптерикс были примерно одинакового размера, только первый был немного более массивным. Кетцалькоатль летал над сушей и питался падалью и мелкими позвоночными. Возможно, он мог поймать и небольшого динозавра весом до 30 килограммов.

 Изначально размах крыльев оценили в 15,9 метров, усреднив оценку через пропорции других птерозавров. Однако в ходе исследования 1981 года оценочный размер уменьшили до 11—12 метров. Более поздние исследования ещё уменьшили размер Q. до 10—11 метров.

 Оценить массу гигантских аждархидов очень сложно, поскольку нет существующих видов схожего размера или строения, поэтому в разных публикациях результаты разнятся. В то время как некоторые исследования традиционно указывают крайне низкую оценочную массу, как например 70 кг для 10-и метровой особи, большинство оценок, опубликованных с начала 2000-х, указывают на массу в районе 200 кг.

 О жизненном укладе Q. существует несколько предположений. Поскольку кости были найдены в сотнях километров от береговой линии, и не было найдено следов больших рек или глубоких озёр, Дуглас Лоусон в 1975 году отверг рыболовную натуру Q., предположив, что животное питалось падалью подобно африканскому марабу. Лоусон нашел останки гигантского птерозавра во время поисков костей аламозавра, бывшего важной частью экосистемы.

 В 1996 году Томас Леман и Лангстон указали, что строение нижней челюсти отличается от таковой у типичных птиц-падальщиков. Они предположили, что длинная шея и длинные беззубые челюсти позволяли Q. питаться примерно как современные водорезы, ловя рыбу во время полета над водой, прочесывая волны клювом.

 Исследование 2007 года показало, что для такого большого птерозавра подобный полет был бы слишком энергозатратным из-за сильного лобового сопротивления.

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Репродукции (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12):

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 Размеры тела в сравнении с человеком:

 Ископаемые останки и реплики (1, 2, 3):

Tags: Вымершие рептилии, Мел, авеметатарзалии, аждархиды, аждархойды, архозавроморфы, архозавры, диапсиды, монофенестраты, орнитохейройды, птеродактили, птерозавры

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