The Flying Reptile Thread- Anything pterosaur related

Adam Khor

It's name is Jianchagnathus robustus and was part of the scaphognathid family. The specimen is about 116 cms (wingspan) but probably could grow quite a bit larger since it was not yet fully grown. Check out the teeth!



Oh and in case you didn´t find out, there was recently another Jurassic pterosaur from China, Qinglongopterus, which was a small guy; only 33.4 cms (wingspan). It too was a rhamphorhynchid.
BTW, I resized the images but it seemingly didn´t work, sorry about that :S

Galvasean

Nasty teeth on Jianchagnathus. Must have been a nippy little predator.

Rubecula

Flying predator with teeth, Nippy? That is a good play on words right there and worth the thread alone. :D

Adam Khor

A new study by pterosaur specialist Mark Witton suggests that Istiodactylus (formerly known as Ornithodesmus and nicknamed the "duck-billed pterosaur") had a skull much shorter than previously believed, and several traits indicate that it may have been sort of a pterosaurian version of the vulture, feeding on dinosaur carcasses.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0033170

Rubecula

Why not, after all it is a niche that needed to be filled.

Good spot Adam

Adam Khor

Move over Coloborhynchus... it seems that Moganopterus, found in China, had the largest skull of any toothed pterosaur ever found- what is preserved is 95 cms long; its wingspan has been estimated at 5-7 meters. The jaws were extremely elongated, and the skull was 11.5 times as long as it was tall!

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-6724.2012.00658.x/abstract

Galvasean

That is one weird looking skull!

Adam Khor

Found in Las Hoyas, Spain, home of Concavenator and that diminutive lizard I posted about before.
Europejara is the oldest tapejarid and the oldest toothless pterosaur, a record held previously by Eopteranodon. It may have been a fruit eater, as has been suggested for other tapejarids, but no gut content has confirmed this.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0038900

Galvasean

There seems to be an awful lot of cool stuff being discovered in Spain these days. It looks like Spain (one of our posters is over there now searching for fossils) and mexico are the two big hot spots these days.

Rubecula

Another great spot Adam.

The sheer variety of ptero's we have now is boggling. They must have been as varied as birds are. I know next to nothing about them but I am quickly becoming an avid fan. And I do believe they were supposed to be better fliers than most birds are. Well not sure on better, but certainly covering a bigger size range. There was also something in one of the threads that they perhaps had a furry covering too?

Galvasean

It seems most if not all pterosaurs had at least some fur. Jeholopterus ningchengensis seems to be one of the hairier ones.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=64179887

Rubecula

Thanks for that link, not sure how I missed that first time around.

It shows one thing above all else though. They were NOT flying dinosaurs.

Dino's = feathers, Ptero's = fur.

Galvasean

Ah well, I don't think anyone has credibly argued that pterosaurs were dinosaurs in a very long time... Now there's an interesting one - were pterosaurs ever grouped among the dinosauria?
First one back with a good answer get's a prize.

I'm gonna bet it's Adam too.

Rubecula

I think it is (or has been ) mooted about that the idea for monsterous dragons came about from finding fossils. The creatures were indestructible unless stabbed somewhere soft (like an underbelly) because that is the supposedly softer part of a crocodile, and anything huge with bones of stone would be much tougher. The idea of flying dragons (or more accurately Wyverns ) stems from pterosaur fossils. And as they could obviously fly then the big dragons must also have been able to fly.

So the idea of ptero's and Dino's being different kinds of creatures didn't come into being until after true scientific discovery and examination.

(And if you believe all that I just typed out I can surely claim my prize )

Galvasean

Bonus credit!

Adam Khor

Galvasean wrote: »

Ah well, I don't think anyone has credibly argued that pterosaurs were dinosaurs in a very long time... Now there's an interesting one - were pterosaurs ever grouped among the dinosauria?
First one back with a good answer get's a prize.

I'm gonna bet it's Adam too.

If I'm not mistaken, Robert Bakker used to say that pterosaurs (or pterodactyls as he prefers to call them) should be classified along with dinosaurs. I think he even said it in Dinosaur Heressies.
In a way, Bakker's idea of what "dinosaurs" should be would be what we call today Ornithodira, including both dinosaurs and pterosaurs. :>

As for pterosaur fuzz, it is said to be more closely "related" to dinosaur proto-feathers than to actual, mammal-like fur. That's another point in favor of the idea of the common ancestor of dinosaurs (and pterosaurs) having some sort of fuzz as well.
The original hairy pterosaur was Sordes pilosus (hairy devil) found in Central Asia;

Galvasean

Haven't gotten my hands on a copy of Dinosaur Heresies since I was a kid. Don't remember that bit though. I wonder do DCU still have a copy in their library and how might I access it...

Rubecula

Galvasean have you tried this?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Dinosaur-Heresies-Robert-Bakker/dp/0821756087

Adam Khor

Older than Rhamphorhynchus and related to it, Bellubrunnus is known by a single fossilized skeleton- that of a baby. It still shows some peculiarities- like the tip of the wings that curved forwards giving it a very distinctive flight profile.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/jul/06/pterosaur-bellubrunnus-dinosaur-uv-light

Rubecula

Looks a stubby fat little fella doesn't he? A bit like a prehistoric sparrow?

by the way I followed the link and read the article. at the bottom of which I found this:

http://pterosaur.net/index.php

Seems a bit specialised but some of you my like it.

Galvasean

I like the forward pointing wings.

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

Looks a stubby fat little fella doesn't he? A bit like a prehistoric sparrow?

by the way I followed the link and read the article. at the bottom of which I found this:

http://pterosaur.net/index.php

Seems a bit specialised but some of you my like it.

I thought everyone knew this site XD Beware of a site that has a very similar name (don´t remember exactly right now) but is written by either infamous David Peters or someone who shares his views, and has lots of misleading info.

Adam Khor

This is the first confirmed azhdarchid from South America, although bits and fragments had already been tentatively identified as such.

It had a wingspan of at least five meters.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02724634.2012.703979?journalCode=ujvp20

Galvasean

sudamericanus? I see what you mean about lazy location naming...

Adam Khor

I'm somewhat confused... I mean, all the latest studies had suggested that these guys could take off with incredible easy from a standing point, and now suddenly we're back to the old "needs-a-cliff" idea? Wasn´t the habitat of these guys mostly flat, too?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121107132103.htm#.UJrPTJl7-hc.twitter

Galvasean

Reading toward the end of the article they reckon all it needed was a ten degree slant to take off. That's hardly a cliff...

Adam Khor

Galvasean wrote: »

Reading toward the end of the article they reckon all it needed was a ten degree slant to take off. That's hardly a cliff...

Good point, but still, what ever happened to the vampire-bat-like Quetzalcoatlus that could take off from a standing point in a matter of seconds, as we had been told?

Galvasean

Adam Khor wrote: »

Good point, but still, what ever happened to the vampire-bat-like Quetzalcoatlus that could take off from a standing point in a matter of seconds, as we had been told?

Well, according to this the mechanics don't work for an animal as big as Quetzalcoatlus. I'm no mathematician so ca't really comment for or against that. It should be interesting to see this one get knocked back and forth among scientists.
Personally, I can't see an animal like Quetzalcoatlus lasting very long in Cretaceous North America if it was cumbersome in take off. The place was crawling with tyrannosaurs!

Adam Khor

Yeah that's my point, unless of course tyrannosaurs were scared of Quetzalcoatlus...



Still, even if we assume that Quetzalcoatlus was somehow able to defend itself while on the ground, what would stop a tyrannosaur from grabbing it while it attempts to take off?

Galvasean

Can't imagine even a very large Quetzalcoatlus would be anything close to a match for a tyrannosaur exceeding 30 feet. Escape would be its best option in such a scenario, but if takeoff was awkward it would have been doomed.
Heck, even a pair of subadults could take one if it was having trouble finding a good take off spot.

Rubecula

Galvasean wrote: »

Well, according to this the mechanics don't work for an animal as big as Quetzalcoatlus. I'm no mathematician so ca't really comment for or against that. It should be interesting to see this one get knocked back and forth among scientists.
Personally, I can't see an animal like Quetzalcoatlus lasting very long in Cretaceous North America if it was cumbersome in take off. The place was crawling with tyrannosaurs!

According to mathematics a bumble bee can't fly, and nothing bigger than a swan can fly and ... and ....

Basically we know these creatures existed and we know they flew, and we know they were fairly successful. We should not be looking at problems in their existence, but looking at why they were as successful as they were. Who knows they may have been hunting T Rex rather than the other way around. I tend to think they were more likely to be like vultures or condors. Possibly hunters but mostly scavengers.

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

According to mathematics a bumble bee can't fly, and nothing bigger than a swan can fly and ... and ....

Basically we know these creatures existed and we know they flew, and we know they were fairly successful. We should not be looking at problems in their existence, but looking at why they were as successful as they were. Who knows they may have been hunting T Rex rather than the other way around. I tend to think they were more likely to be like vultures or condors. Possibly hunters but mostly scavengers.

Maybe marabou storks would be a better comparison? Having a more similar beak and body structure, kiiiiinda....





Ah, I almost forgot; here's a video of a Tapejara (mistakenly said to be Quetzalcoatlus in the video description, and also dubbed a "giant dinosaur") taking off and landing. Very different from the pole-vault take off we had been seeing lately.

http://www.livescience.com/24634-a-giant-dinosaur-s-awkward-takeoff-and-landing-video.html

Rubecula

I thought came to me as I watched that video (excellent bit of work by the way Adam) Who is to know how far these things actually flew for? A hundred yards or so to get out of danger or vast thousands of miles journeys?

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

I thought came to me as I watched that video (excellent bit of work by the way Adam) Who is to know how far these things actually flew for? A hundred yards or so to get out of danger or vast thousands of miles journeys?

Well, they (azhdarchids) were found in many parts of the world including islands such as Hateg (modern Romania) which would suggest they could fly long distances even over the ocean... I remember reading a study (was it posted here? I don´t remember) about how large pterosaurs were physically capable of travelling incredible distances in very little time.

Pteranodon and nyctosaurs were certainly long distance fliers as they are often found in fossil deposits that were once open sea- they were supossedly a lot like albatrosses and similar birds that spend most of their time on the wing (or on the sea surface) and return to land only to breed.
Nyctosaurs may have been the most albatross-like as they even lack wing fingers meaning they probably walked very little (they also have incredibly long wings for their size).

I wonder if we'll find pterosaurs with unmistakable adaptations to a flightless or nearly-flightless lifestyle one day... I remember reading that there was a specimen of pterosaur whose proportions had made some scientists believe it was flightless but it was later debunked.

Galvasean

A controversial study by Japanese researchers (IIRC) said that the giant azhdarchids could not fly. Pretty sure it was debunked very quickly.
Tetrapod Zoology guy wrote an interesting speculative 'what if?' piece about what they would be like if they survived into modern times:
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2008/10/21/kaloo-modern-flightless-azhdarchid/

Rubecula

If they had lasted I think we would have made use of them much like we have done with horses (and other beasts of burden)

We may not have even invented aeroplanes, or else invented them a lot sooner.?

Adam Khor

Rubecula wrote: »

If they had lasted I think we would have made use of them much like we have done with horses (and other beasts of burden)

We may not have even invented aeroplanes, or else invented them a lot sooner.?

Except that unlike horses, these guys were carnivorous... and potentially capable of eating a small human :eek:

I wonder what would we think of marabou storks (storks in general I guess) if they didn´t exist today and we knew them only by their fossils. I can totally see scientists suggesting that they were fligthless based on their weird proportions and large size:

Adam Khor

Small pterosaur from the late Cretaceous of Canada

Suggests birds did not outcompete smaller pterosaurs as has often been said. I always expected this to be found eventually;

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/small-bodied-pterosaur-canada-04148.html

Adam Khor

Allkauren, a new Jurassic pterosaur from Argentina

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/allkauren-koi-argentina-04145.html


Shows intermediate traits between long-tailed rhamphorhynchoids and short-tailed pterodactyls.

Adam Khor

Some pterosaurs did care for their young

https://phys.org/news/2017-11-hundreds-pterosaur-eggs-reveal-early.html

Adam Khor

A variety of new pterosaurs from Morocco

Including pteranodontids and nyctosaurids. Mostly just fragments.
http://www.eartharchives.org/articles/pterosaurs-maintained-high-diversity-until-the-end/
Interesting graphic tho. Avisaurus is pretty impressive for a Mesozoic bird. Looks about eagle-sized!

Adam Khor

"Dracula", the largest, most powerful pterosaur ever found

It was found in Transylvania, hence the nickname. Didn´t suck blood, but it was certainly big enough to eat a full sized human and had bones so robust it was thought to be a dinosaur at first. It belongs to the same family as Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx but is said to be a new species, and known from more complete remains (at last!). 

https://www.thelocal.de/20180323/worlds-largest-pterodachtyl-dracula-museum-altmuehltal

Adam Khor

https://www.livescience.com/62662-largest-pterosaur-jawbone-transylvania.html

Capt'n Midnight

200-million year old Pterosaur 'built for flying'

https://phys.org/news/2018-08-million-year-pterosaur-built.html

Caelestiventus hanseni—roughly, "heavenly wind"—is probably the most complete skeletal remains of a pterosaur ever found.

"Most pterosaurs bones look like road-kill," Britt told AFP, noting that there are only 30-odd specimens worldwide from the Triassic period which lasted some 51 million years.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45171201

It's a trifecta: a Triassic pterosaur from a new place, preserved in an immaculate way, and found in rocks from an environment that we didn't think they lived in so early during their evolution. What this means is that pterosaurs were already geographically widespread and thriving in a variety of environments very early in their evolution.

Fathom

Delta winged (somewhat) Triassic pterosaur? Wish we could see it fly and dive for prey.

Adam Khor

Do check out the skull of this beauty!

Adam Khor

Quetzalcoatlus relative found in southern France

https://www.naturalsciences.be/en/news/item/17106/?fbclid=IwAR1PxCfxVdhMQmeMIbHxOMXQDmmUW6AqGDMzs7z3siR12j44CO8qwGWb2rQ

Adam Khor

This Pteranodon was eaten by giant fish

Tooth marks from both a shark (Squalicorax) and a barracuda-like fish (Saurodon) were found on this Pteranodon fossil.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/prehistoric-sharks-chowed-down-pterosaurs-180970476/

Adam Khor

Clues reveal how baby pterosaurs grew up

https://www.livescience.com/63871-how-pterosaurs-grew-up.html

Adam Khor

Very impressive reconstruction of one of the largest flying animals known!

https://news.umich.edu/giant-pterosaur-flies-into-u-m-museum-of-natural-history/









Here's other Quetzalcoatlus models made by the same company:

Adam Khor

Pterosaurs had... feathers???

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0728-7?fbclid=IwAR2wtt7fuOg5-LtduK5eh0JlMlEIds0A4Vgp5zcaBpx916kVqIv67nS-9VA