Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new species of Quetzalcotorin azhdarchopterosaur. Nippotherus mifunensis from the Late Cretaceous of Japan.
Restoration of life in the giant azhdarchid group, Quetzalcoatlus nothropi foraging in the Cretaceous fern steppe. Image credit: Mark Witton / Darren Naish.
Pterosaurs were highly successful flying reptiles (not dinosaurs, as is commonly misunderstood) that lived between 210 and 65 million years ago.
They were the first flying vertebrates on Earth, with birds and bats appearing much later.
Some pterosaurs, like the giant azhdarchids, were the largest flying animals in history, with wingspans exceeding 9 meters (30 feet) and a standing height comparable to modern giraffes.
“Pterosaurs, the earliest vertebrate group to achieve powered flight, exhibit remarkable morphological diversity, with a fossil record that spans from the Late Triassic to the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. '' said Dr. Naoki Ikegami of the Mifune Dinosaur Museum and Dr. Naoki Ikegami of the University of São Paulo. Rodrigo Pegas and his friends.
“The pterosaur skeleton's fragile air bones make its fossil record particularly irregular and uneven.”
“Most well-preserved, relatively complete archaeological sites are confined to a few Lagerstätten around the world. In contrast, most other deposits that yield pterosaurs are typically fragments. generate a typical sample.
“For one thing, there are very few records of pterosaurs in Japan, so every artifact has special significance.”
“The first pterosaur specimen discovered in Japan came from the Ezo Group in Hokkaido, and is representative of an indeterminate pterosaur species consisting of a femur, metatarsals, foot phalanges, and part of the caudal vertebrae. It is.”
6th cervical vertebra Nippoterus mifunensis. Image credit: Zhou others., doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2024.106046.
The newly identified species is Quetzalcoatrinae a subfamily of the pterosaur family Azhdarchidae.
“Azhdarchids represent a very special clade of pterosaurs, particularly notorious for containing some of the largest flying creatures in history, with wingspans of 10 to 11 meters (33 to 36 feet).” Quetzalcoatlus nothropi, aramburgiania philadelphia and Hatzegopteryx tanbema'' said the paleontologists.
“The azhdarchid clade, most prominently characterized by elongated cervical vertebrae with reduced neural spines, is widely distributed in Turonian to Maastrichtian pterosaur communities around the world.”
“They represent the most diverse and widespread group of pterosaurs during the Late Cretaceous.”
named Nippoterus mifunensis the new species lived in what is now Japan about 90 million years ago (late Cretaceous period).
“Nippoterus mifunensis “This is the first nominally Japanese pterosaur species,” the researchers said.
“This new species exhibits many Quetzalcoat line characteristics and bears a striking resemblance to the unnamed Burcant azhdarchid of Mongolia's Turonian-Coniacian.”
Part of the 6th cervical vertebra Nippotherus mifunensis It was produced from an outcrop of the Mifune Group near Amagi Dam in Mifune Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu.
“The specimen was found in a 30-centimeter (12-inch) thick layer of coarse lenticular sandstone, nestled between two tuff layers, in the middle of the upper formation of the Mifune Group,” the scientists said. said.
their paper Published in this month's magazine Cretaceous research.
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Zhou Xuanyu others. Re-evaluation of azhdarchoid pterosaur specimens from the Mifune Group, Late Cretaceous of Japan. Cretaceous researchpublished online on November 16, 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2024.106046
Source: www.sci.news
