Pterodactyloid pterosaur bones from Cretaceous deposits of the Antarctic Peninsula

Kellner, Alexander W. A.; Rodrigues, Taissa; Costa, Fabiana Rodrigues; Weinschütz, Luiz Carlos; Figueiredo, Rodrigo G.; Souza, Geovane Alves de; Brum, Arthur S.; Eleutério, Lúcia H. S.; Mueller, Carsten W.; Sayão, Juliana Manso

doi:10.1590/0001-3765201920191300

“…However, the comparative rarity of skeletal material in most formations, due in part to strong taphonomic influences and other geological biases, have limited studies of this clade and clouded interpretations of pterosaur paleobiology and paleoecology (Butler et al, 2012;Butler, Benson & Barrett, 2013;Dean, Mannion & Butler, 2016). Thus, even isolated and incomplete bones can provide important information for establishing the distribution and general morphological attributes of pterosaurs (Kellner et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A large pterosaur limb bone from the Kaiparowits Formation (late Campanian) of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA

Farke¹

2021

PeerJ

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Pterosaurs were widespread during the Late Cretaceous, but their fossils are comparatively rare in terrestrial depositional environments. A large pterosaur bone from the Kaiparowits Formation (late Campanian, ~76–74 Ma) of southern Utah, USA, is tentatively identified as an ulna, although its phylogenetic placement cannot be precisely constrained beyond Pterosauria. The element measures over 36 cm in preserved maximum length, indicating a comparatively large individual with an estimated wingspan between 4.3 and 5.9 m, the largest pterosaur yet reported from the Kaiparowits Formation. This size estimate places the individual at approximately the same wingspan as the holotype for Cryodrakon boreas from the penecontemporaneous Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta. Thus, relatively large pterosaurs occurred in terrestrial ecosystems in both the northern and southern parts of Laramidia (western North America) during the late Campanian.

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“…Pterosaurs were a diverse, disparate and highly specialised group of terrestrial reptiles that represent the oldest set of vertebrates currently understood to have achieved powered flight (Benton, 1985;Unwin, 2003;Andres, 2006;Barrett et al, 2008;Andres, Clark & Xu, 2014;Britt et al, 2018). Originating at some time in either the Early or Middle Triassic (Nesbitt et al, 2017), and first appearing in the fossil record in the middle of the Late Triassic (Barrett et al, 2008;Bennett, 2013), the pterosaurs went on to thrive throughout the Mesozoic Era as one of the dominant groups of land animals, lasting right up until the very end of the Cretaceous Period and achieving a global distribution (Unwin, 2003;Dalla Vecchia, 2004;Unwin & Martill, 2007;Barrett et al, 2008;Kellner et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, all known early pterosaurs appear to be fully capable of powered flight and, as yet, no transitional non-flying pterosaur taxa are known (though some specimens have been suggested to be exactly that— Huene, 1914 ). Later pterosaurs went on to achieve a broader, truly global, geographic range, as well as much larger body sizes and much more unusual and often unique features of anatomy ( Unwin & Bakhurina, 1994 , 1995 ; Unwin, 2001 , 2003 ; Dalla Vecchia et al, 2002 ; Barrett et al, 2008 ; Hone et al, 2012 ; Upchurch et al, 2015 ; Kellner et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing pterosaur ingroup relationships through broader sampling of avemetatarsalian taxa and characters and a range of phylogenetic analysis techniques

Baron

¹

2020

PeerJ

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The pterosaurs first appear in the fossil record in the middle of the Late Triassic. Their earliest representatives are known from Northern Hemisphere localities but, by the end of the Jurassic Period, this clade of flying reptiles achieved a global distribution, as well as high levels of diversity and disparity. Our understanding of early pterosaur evolution and the fundamental interrelationships within Pterosauria has improved dramatically in recent decades. However, there is still debate about how the various pterosaur subgroups relate to one another and about which taxa comprise these. Many recent phylogenetic analyses, while sampling well from among the known Triassic and Early Jurassic pterosaurs, have not included many non-pterosaurian ornithodirans or other avemetatarsalians. Given the close relationship between these groups of archosaurs, the omission of other ornithodirans and avemetatarsalians has the potential to adversely affect the results of phylogenetic analyses, in terms of character optimisation and ingroup relationships recovered. This study has addressed this issue and tests the relationships between the early diverging pterosaur taxa following the addition of avemetatarsalian taxa and anatomical characters to an existing early pterosaur dataset. This study has, for the first time, included taxa that represent the aphanosaurs, lagerpetids, silesaurids and dinosaurs, in addition to early pterosaurs. Anatomical characters used in other recent studies of archosaurs and early dinosaurs have also been incorporated. By expanding the outgroup taxa and anatomical character coverage in this pterosaur dataset, better resolution between the taxa within certain early pterosaur subclades has been achieved and stronger support for some existing clades has been found; other purported clades of early pterosaurs have not been found in this analysis—for example there is no support for a monophyletic Eopterosauria or Eudimorphodontidae. Further support has been found for a sister-taxon relationship between Peteinosaurus zambelli and Macronychoptera, a clade here named Zambellisauria (clade nov.), as well as for a monophyletic and early diverging Preondactylia. Some analyses also support the existence of a clade that falls as sister-taxon to the zambellisaurs, here named Caviramidae (clade nov.). Furthermore, some support has been found for a monophyletic Austriadraconidae at the base of Pterosauria. Somewhat surprisingly, Lagerpetidae is recovered outside of Ornithodira sensu stricto, meaning that, based upon current definitions at least, pterosaurs fall within Dinosauromorpha in this analysis. However, fundamental ornithodiran interrelationships were not the focus of this study and this particular result should be treated with caution for now. However, these results do further highlight the need for broader taxon and character sampling in phylogenetic analyses, and the effects of outgroup choice on determining ingroup relationships.

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“…Pterosaurs were a diverse, disparate and highly specialised group of terrestrial reptiles that represent the oldest set of vertebrates currently understood to have achieved powered flight (Benton, 1985;Unwin, 2003;Andres, 2006;Barrett et al, 2008;Andres, Clark and Xu, 2014;Britt et al, 2018). Originating at some time in either the Early or Middle Triassic (Nesbitt et al, 2017), and first appearing in the fossil record in the middle of the Late Triassic (Barrett et al, 2008;Bennet, 2013), the pterosaurs went on to thrive throughout the Mesozoic Era as one of the dominant groups of land animals, lasting right up until the very end of the Cretaceous Period and achieving a global distribution (Unwin, 2003;Dalla Vecchia, 2004;Unwin and Martill, 2007; Barrett et al, 2008;Kellner et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Manuscript to be reviewed 1914). Later pterosaurs went on to achieve a broader, truly global, geographic range, as well as much larger body sizes and much more unusual and often unique features of anatomy (e.g., Unwin and Bakhurina, 1994;Unwin and Bakhurina, 1995;Unwin, 2001;Unwin, 2003;Dalla Vecchia et al, 2002;Barrett et al, 2008;Hone et al, 2012;Upchurch et al, 2015;Kellner et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #1 of "Testing pterosaur ingroup relationships through broader sampling of avemetatarsalian taxa and characters and a range of phylogenetic analysis techniques (v0.1)"

2020

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The pterosaurs first appear in the fossil record in the middle of the Late Triassic. Their earliest representatives are known from Northern Hemisphere localities but, by the end of the Jurassic Period, this clade of flying reptiles achieved a global distribution, as well as high levels of diversity and disparity. Our understanding of early pterosaur evolution and the fundamental interrelationships within Pterosauria has improved dramatically in recent decades. However, there is still debate about how the various pterosaur subgroups relate to one another and about which taxa comprise these. Many recent phylogenetic analyses, while sampling well from among the known Triassic and Early Jurassic pterosaurs, have not included many nonpterosaurian ornithodirans or other avemetatarsalians. Given the close relationship between these groups of archosaurs, the omission of other ornithodirans and avemetatarsalians has the potential to adversely affect the results of phylogenetic analyses, in terms of character optimisation and ingroup relationships recovered. This study has addressed this issue and tests the relationships between the early diverging pterosaur taxa following the addition of avemetatarsalian taxa and anatomical characters to an existing early pterosaur dataset. This study has, for the first time, included taxa that represent the aphanosaurs, lagerpetids, silesaurids and dinosaurs, in addition to early pterosaurs. Anatomical characters used in other recent studies of archosaurs and early dinosaurs have also been incorporated. By expanding the outgroup taxa and anatomical character coverage in this pterosaur dataset, better resolution

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Pterodactyloid pterosaur bones from Cretaceous deposits of the Antarctic Peninsula

Cited by 21 publications

References 48 publications

A large pterosaur limb bone from the Kaiparowits Formation (late Campanian) of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA

A large pterosaur limb bone from the Kaiparowits Formation (late Campanian) of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah, USA

Testing pterosaur ingroup relationships through broader sampling of avemetatarsalian taxa and characters and a range of phylogenetic analysis techniques

Peer Review #1 of "Testing pterosaur ingroup relationships through broader sampling of avemetatarsalian taxa and characters and a range of phylogenetic analysis techniques (v0.1)"

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