"New insights into pterosaur cranial anatomy: X-ray imaging reveals palatal structure and evolutionary trends..."
"...Our analyses revealed the presence of sutures between palatal bones in #Dsungaripterus and #Kunpengopterus, which resulted in different interpretations of the relation between palatine, ectopterygoid, and pterygoid, leading to a new identification of the palatal openings...."
Pterodactylus was a little pterosaur that lived in Germany during the Late Jurassic, about 145 million years ago. It is known from several excellent fossils, which include soft-tissue impressions of it fur, wings, and crest. It is also a very pretty little animal.
The print of... [more]:
Life-sized paintings make no sense on the internet, of course, because device-makers and software vendor never got together for a goddamn standard about how big things would be displayed because fuck everyone.
(Much like the “send something to someone right next to you” problem that they’ve fumbled for decades.)
Rhamphorhynchus muensteri was a medium-sized pterosaur from the Late Jurassic of Germany. It is known from dozens of excellent fossils, including one of the best Mesozoic fossils I know of, the famous darkwing specimen.
Ornithicheirus mesembrinus (previously Tropeognathus), was a very large pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. The body in this reconstruction is based mostly on the related Coloborhynchus.
Dearc sgiathanach was a #rhamphorynchid found on the Isle of Skye in #Scotland, and described by Natalia Jagielska and Steve Brusatte. Its wingspan was estimated at about 2.5 meters (8.2 feet), which was much bigger than the next biggest #pterosaurs at that time!
Feel free to favorite and reblog if you want to see more like this!
Here is Caelestiventus hanseni! One of the few #pterosaurs discovered from the #Triassic!
This definitely has one of the best names of any #pterosaur! Its generic name translates to “heavenly wind”, which is definitely up there with #Sordes and #Cryodrakon!
This wasn't supposed to be a Christmas present, but it arrived the day before Christmas Eve, so it went under the tree anyway. Dr Dhrolin's Dictionary of Dinosaurs! It is beautiful! We've been playing Pathfinder a lot recently so I'll have to find a way to convert the creatures. Meanwhile, I'm just staring at the incredible art. My favourite is the pterosaur-person bard using their wing finger as a bow, which is just delightful and clever.
Me: "Well which is more likely, that someone saw a bunch of magical flying reindeer, or that someone saw a bunch of antlered Nyctosaurus and mistook them for reindeer?"
My partner: "As reluctant as I am to admit it, the flock of Nyctosaurus is more likely."
"How Pterosaurs Might Inform the Next Generation of #Flight
"After #Paleontologists cracked the secrets of the ancient flying #Reptiles, researchers are... going back to these ancient creatures to find new ways to fly, from #Aircraft with pterosaur-like crests to pterosaur-inspired spacecraft exploring the nooks and crannies of #Mars."
A look at what is probably a precursor of the flying pterosaurs.
""It was relatively small compared to the giants that would follow it later in Earth’s history. With a hip height of approximately 0.3 meters (about a foot) and a length of perhaps a meter (roughly three feet), this ancient reptile existed long before the evolution of the pterosaurs most of us recognize."
On this second day of #MegafaunaMay, our daily #megafauna is quetzelcoatlus. Named after the feathered serpent god of the Aztec religion, this gigantic #pterosaur lived during the late Cretaceous period in modern-day North America.
With a maximum weight over 500lbs and a wingspan over 30 feet wide, #quetzelcoatlus has inspired controversy over its flight capabilities. For some, its massive size sheds doubt on the idea that it ever flew, but aerodynamic models suggest that it was, in fact, the largest flying animal known to have existed. The towering pterosaur was originally thought to have flown like modern condors by soaring on thermal updrafts in the air. However, more recent research suggests that it instead has more in common with the kori bustard, using its strong wing muscles to complete short, low flights.
Even short flights are impressive from such a heavy animal, and the wings had to be very wide in order to allow them. In fact, quetzelcoatlus’s wingspan is so long that its folded wings touched the ground when it stood on its 6-foot tall legs. This gave the pterosaur a unique approach to walking: each wing had to be moved out of the way of its corresponding foot with each step it too.
Like other #pterosaurs, this species had hollow bones, so its fragile remains are rarer finds than those of contemporary dinosaurs such as the T-Rex. Skulls have given us many hints about quetzelcoatlus’s lifestyle: its large eye sockets suggest that had excellent eyesight; its beak suggests a diet of creatures skimmed out of the lakes near where its fossils have been found; and a bony crest on top of its head could potentially have been used for attracting mates or controlling flight. Although we do not have a complete skeleton of quetzelcoatlus, reconstructions and comparisons to modern species have allowed us to fill in the gaps.