#Arambourgiania Philadelphiae

[saritapaleo]

Archovember 2024 Day 10 - Arambourgiania philadelphiae

Arambourgiania philadelphiae was a giant azhdarchid from Late Cretaceous Jordan, the largest known azhdarchid, and possibly the largest flying animal to ever exist. It was discovered before its more famous cousins Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx, however, it is only known from a slender, 78 cm (31 in) long neck vertebrae and some other fragmentary wing bits. Based on the proportions of its cousins, this would give Arambourgiania an estimated wingspan of 10 metres (33 ft). While the size of a giraffe, air pockets and hollow bones would have made it lighter than one, at around an estimated 227 kg (500 lbs). Like Quetzalcoatlus, it was probably still capable of flight, and based on the makeup of its humerus, was likely a soarer rather than a flapper. Also like its cousins, it was most likely a land-based, stalking predator of smaller animals, and would have only used its massive wingspan to escape threats and move to new hunting grounds.

Arambourgiania’s neck bone was found by a railway worker in the early 1940s, during repairs on the Amman-Damascus railroad near Russeifa. As far as I can find, it is not attributed to a specific formation, and Maastrichtian-age fossil remains in Jordan are scarce. It was likely a hunter of small mammals, lizards, dinosaurs, and amphibians, but its unknown what larger animals Arambourgiania would have encountered. During the maastrichtian, the common dinosaurs of the time would have been ornithopods, ceratopsians, ankylosaurs, pachycephalosaurs, titanosaurs, abelisaurids, ornithomimosaurs, tyrannosauroids, therizinosauroids, dromaeosaurs, troodontids, oviraptorosaurs, alvarezsaurids, and avialans.

This art may be used for educational purposes, with credit, but please contact me first for permission before using my art. I would like to know where and how it is being used. If you don’t have something to add that was not already addressed in this caption, please do not repost this art. Thank you!

[gillywillys]

Archovember day ten! Arambourgiania Philadelphiae

wanted to try a nice background this time, this one was actually pretty quick

Archovember is by @/saritapaleo

[princefluph]

Archovember day 10! Arambourgiania philadelphiae! An Azhdarchid from the late Cretaceous! We actually have information on this one that comes from this year which found out that this pterosaur has a similar structure to soaring birds as opposed to continuous flappers like some other pterosaurs. Watching a 14 ft animal with a 30 ft wingspan soaring way up in the air must have been something incredible to see (although horrifying for those below if youre small and delicious to the Azhdarchids)

[c-kiddo]

I LOVE PTEROSAURS! They are so good they are either the scrungliest beast alive or a literal dragon and they deserve so much more love.

ya!! i lov them sm . azhdarchids are my fave i think but i need to look into different pterosaurs more.. i just really like quetzacoatlus and hatzegopteryx . also arambourgiania philadelphiae, mostly just because of the mark witton illustration of them. i just like how huge and strange they are. big big big storks. and i like their theorised sounds.. idk i feel attached to them theyre v cool

[paleoartchive]

Additional details: the pterodactyl is specifically an azhdarchid, a type of pterosaur characterized by long legs, long necks, and large heads with spear-like beaks. They are notable for being the largest known flying animals to ever live.

While the specific species in the image is ambiguous, the azhdarchid Arambourgiania philadelphiae was described based on a fossil found near Russeifa, Jordan. That would place it less than fifty miles from Palestine, over which it almost certainly once flew.

freedom for palestine within our lifetime.

please consider donating to care for gaza (twitter link w/ more information), doctors without borders, the palestine children's relief fund or another one of the many other charitable organizations working to help those affected by the ongoing attacks.

[gaetaniu]

Nuovi fossili provenienti dalla Giordania forniscono indicazioni sulla capacità di volo dei grandi pterosauri

Gli Inabtanin alarabia (in alto) volano sbattendo le ali, mentre gli Arambourgiania philadelphiae (in basso) si librano come avvoltoi. I paleontologi hanno portato alla luce i resti fossili di due diverse specie di pterosauri azhdarchoidi di grandi dimensioni – la nuova specie Inabtanin alarabia e la specie già nota Arambourgiania philadelphiae – negli orizzonti del Cretaceo superiore della…

[dlium]

Two species of pterosaurs, Arambourgiania philadelphiae and Inabatin alarabia, had different flight styles

टेरोसॉरस की दो प्रजातियों, अरमबोर्गियानिया फिलाडेल्फिया और इनाबैटिन अलारबिया की उड़ान शैली अलग-अलग थी

Dos especies de pterosaurios, Arambourgiania philadelphiae e Inabatin alarabia, tenían diferentes estilos de vuelo

两种翼龙，费城阿氏翼龙和阿拉伯阿氏翼龙，有着不同的飞行方式

兩種翼龍，Arambourgiania philadelphiae 和 Inabatin alarabia，具有不同的飛行風格

Deux espèces de ptérosaures, Arambourgiania philadelphiae et Inabatin alarabia, avaient des styles de vol différents

翼竜の2種、アランブルギアニア・フィラデルフィアとイナバティン・アラビアは、異なる飛行スタイルを持っていた。

Duas espécies de pterosaurs, Arambourgiania philadelphiae e Inabatina alarabia, tinham diferentes estilos de voo

টেরোসরের দুটি প্রজাতি, আরামবুর্গিয়ানিয়া ফিলাডেলফিয়া এবং ইন��বাটিন অ্যালারাবিয়ার উড়ানের ধরন আলাদা ছিল

Zwei Arten von Flugsauriern, Arambourgiania philadelphiae und Inabatin alarabia, hatten unterschiedliche Flugstile

두 종의 익룡인 Arambourgiania philadelphiae와 Inabatin alarabia는 서로 다른 비행 스타일을 가지고 있었습니다.

Dua spesies pterosaurus, Arambourgiania philadelphiae dan Inabatin alarabia, memiliki gaya terbang yang berbeda

Pterosaurs විශේෂ දෙකක්, Arambourgiania philadelphiae සහ Inabatin alarabia, වෙනස් පියාසැරි විලාසයන් ඇත.

Dalawang uri ng pterosaur, Arambourgiania philadelphiae at Inabatin alarabia, ay may magkaibang istilo ng paglipad

เทอโรซอร์สองสายพันธุ์ ได้แก่ Arambourgiania philadelphiae และ Inabatin alarabia มีลักษณะการบินที่แตกต่างกัน

Hai loài thằn lằn bay, Arambourgiania philadelphiae và Inabatin alarabia, có phong cách bay khác nhau

Два вида птерозавров, Arambourgiania philadelphiae и Inabatin alarabia, имели разные стили полета

Dwa gatunki pterozaurów, Arambourgiania philadelphiae i Inabatin alarabia, miały różne style lotu

İki pterozor türü, Arambourgiania philadelphiae ve Inabatin alarabia, farklı uçuş stillerine sahipti

Два види птерозаврів, Arambourgiania philadelphiae та Inabatin alarabia, мали різні стилі польоту

Dlium TheDlium @dlium

[saritawolff]

#Dinovember/#Archovember Day 7: Arambourgiania

Anyone order a carnivorous flying giraffe? No? Well unfortunately he is here and he is frightening.

[tales-of-kaimere]

Depicted here are the three largest azhdarchid pterosaurs, from the left: Arambourgiania philadelphiae, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, and Hatzegopteryx thambema. These giant pterosaurs were highly successful towards the end of the Cretaceous period, with their bones being found on several continents. Despite their great size, these animals were capable fliers. Although there has been some disagreement about their diet and lifestyle, the currently-accepted theory is that they were terrestrial hunters that specialized in small to medium-sized game. The trio above not only represent the three largest genera currently known, they also show a spectrum of body plans: Arambourgiania is a gracile animal, Hatzegopteryx is heavily-built, while Quetzalcoatlus sits somewhere in between. It is believed that this disparity in build is a reflection of their different eating habits, with the brawny Hatzegopteryx being an apex predator of their island habitats while the other two would have preferred smaller prey. As it was the apex predator of its environment, I reconstructed my Hatzegopteryx as a conservative animal, with dark filaments to help it blend into the dry forests of Hateg Island (although an argument could be made for brown filaments, I chose dark to help differentiate it from the other two). I gave my Quetzalcoatlus and Arambourgiania features (shaggy neck and waddle, respectively) that would have caused drag and made them less-graceful fliers, but I believe a sacrifice in aerodynamics in exchange for intimidation would be worthwhile for a terrestrial hunter that had to compete with the likes of young Tyrannosaurs and large raptors. Cheers, folks! -Keenan

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Arambourgiania philadelphiae

By Mark Witton, CC BY-SA 4.0

A reminder that we will not be able to do every pterosaur until we reach $240 in donations on our patreon, so please donate even a dollar if you can. 

Name: Arambourgiania philadelphiae

Name Meaning: In Honor of Arambourg

First Described: 1987

Described By: Nesov et al. 

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Pterodactyliformes, Caelidracones, Pterodactyloidea, Eupterodactyloidea, Ornithocheiroidea, Azhdarchoidea, Neoazhdarchia, Neopterodactyloidea, Azhdarchidae 

Arambourgiania is our first Azhdarchid - and what an Azhdarchid to start with. It is one of the largest known members of the group, though for a long time it was heavily underrated. See, it was known from very limited material, and before Azhdarchids were known to really be a thing - just some vertebrae in the first half of the 1900s. It was mistakenly thought to be a wing bone rather than a vertebra because it was a very, very, very long vertebra - and even though it was huge, the original author did not say it was the largest flying animal known. And then it was ignored for decades. It finally got a decent description and was renamed (because the original name was preoccupied by a fly) in the 1980s and early 90s, but still wasn’t hyped, and instead, Quetzalcoatlus was hyped, because it was known from better material. 

By Mark Witton - size comparison of Arambourgiania, Tyrannosaurus, Balaur, and Homo sapiens, CC BY-SA 4.0 

And yet, here we are. Arambourgiania is known from more material than just the neckbone, but also from other bones from the same area - though these bones are just scraps, from some parts of the wing, it still shows that Arambourgiania had a ridiculously long neck - and, more importantly, that the better preserved small Azhdarchids can help us to figure out how the bigger ones looked (since these bones resemble smaller Azhdarchids, just scaled up). . Fossils of this pterosaur are known from a site near a railway being constructed in Jordan, dating back to the Maaastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous (somewhere between 72 and 66 million years ago). There is material assigned to it from the Coon Creek Formation of Tennessee in America, which would extend its range to about 75 million years ago in the Campanian, but that seems doubtful to me. 

Arambourgiania (C) compared to other Azhdarchids - Hatzegopteryx (A), and Quetzalcoatlus (D), by Mark Witton, CC BY 2.0

Despite its huge size, it was still able to fly, making it one of the largest known flying animals ever. In addition, it  had a ridiculously long, tubular neck, and it and other Azhdarchids had some of the longest necks of any tetrapod - and the neck itself is very reduced and not bulked up, meaning they had ridiculously long necks that were lacking the features usually seen to support long necks. In fact, it had one of the longest necks of any tetrapod except for sauropods. They also have ridiculously huge heads, that were a large for their body size - supported by these skinny long necks. It’s kind of a ridiculous physics problem when you think about it too much. So, it had a long neck - not very strongly supported like sauropod necks - holding a huge head that is much bigger in proportion to the neck than sauropods had. It’s comical. Using the elements known of Arambourgiania, we can probably estimate that it was very tall indeed thanks to this neck - probably about 5 meters tall when standing, with the neck being 3 meters - or more than half - of that height. Right now, it’s wingspan is estimated to be as small as 7 meters and as big as 13 meters - but probably closer to the smaller end. 

By Julio Lacerda, on @paleoart, retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs. 

As an Azhdarchid, Arambourgiania would have been a large predator - hunting prey on the ground such as amphibians, lizards, mammals, and dinosaurs, much like Marabou Storks and Shoebills today. Being so huge, Arambourgiania would have been able to hunt very large prey, though dinosaurs are rare from the middle east in terms of fossil material and may not have been a big part of Arambourgiania’s diet (though, fossilization in the middle east is poor just in general, so there might be more that we don’t know about). It’s long neck would have made its skeleton very lightweight and yet also strong, mainly in how they expanded towards the base of the body. This would have allowed these pterosaurs to grab food and pick it up with little effort. Interestingly enough, the evolution of Azhdarchid necks parallels the evolution of pterosaur wings in general - meaning the same tactics to produce flying surfaces in terms of evolution was utilized in Azhdarchids to evolve their classic, ridiculous necks and eerie appearance.  

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arambourgiania 

http://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/arambourgiania.html 

https://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2016/06/why-giant-azhdarchid-arambourgiania.html 

[saritapaleo]

Archovember is here once again! Looooots of theropods this year. Also a lot more dinosaurs in general than other archosaurs. Sorry. There were just too many I wanted to add!

I also apologize that there are several redraws in this list… I included a couple animals I’ve drawn for past Archovembers that I wasn’t quite happy with (7 to be exact, oop). If you’ve been drawing along since the beginning and don’t feel like drawing a repeat, feel free to substitute a related species!

For new folks: this is my “Draw Dinovember” list that I expanded out to include other archosauriforms. I started doing this a few years ago to challenge myself to draw species I’ve never drawn before and/or ones that don’t get a lot of attention. Feel free to join in! You can do the whole list, just the dinosaurs (the names in green), just the pterosaurs (orange), just the pseudosuchians (blue), just the 3 oddballs (red), just your favorites, just ones you’ve never drawn before, pick one blindly, roll a D20 and a D10 and draw the sum of whichever numbers you get, etc. Just make sure they’re posted on or after their specific day! You can use #Archovember or #Archovember2024, as those are the tags I follow. Be as detailed or as sketchy as you’d like! I’ll be leaving the story highlights on my Instagram (also SaritaPaleo) from last year’s Archovember up until November 1st, if you’d like to see what people have done in the past! (This challenge usually gets a lot more traction on Instagram; so I would recommend checking it out there if you have one!)

As a disclaimer that I am obligated to give every year: when you are looking for refs for some of these species you will come across David Peters. This guy posts a lot of pseudoscientific images featuring lesser-known species, and his stuff can sometimes dominate search results. Do not trust anything from sites called “Reptile Evolution” or “The Pterosaur Heresies.” Peters’ constant outpouring of material has a habit of clogging up search results, misleading and tripping up people who may be trying to get into paleoart. He fooled me when I was first starting out! If you’re drawing along and are having trouble finding legit references, send me a message and I can send you what I’m using!

Anyway, here is the list in case the above graphic can’t be read:

1. Your Choice!

2. Other - Protorosaurus speneri

3. Dinosaur - Gorgosaurus libratus

4. Pterosaur - Preondactylus buffarinii

5. Dinosaur - Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum

6. Pseudosuchian - Razanandrongobe sakalavae

7. Dinosaur - Vespersaurus paranaensis

8. Other - Euparkeria capensis

9. Dinosaur - Spiclypeus shipporum

10. Pterosaur - Arambourgiania philadelphiae

11. Dinosaur - Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus

12. Pseudosuchian - Armadillosuchus arrudai

13. Dinosaur - Shingopana songwensis

14. Pterosaur - Cuspicephalus scarfi

15. Dinosaur - Saturnalia tupiniquim

16. Pterosaur - Caelestiventus hanseni

17. Dinosaur - Koreaceratops hwaseongensis

18. Pseudosuchian - Lotosaurus adentus

19. Dinosaur - Pelagornis sandersi

20. Pterosaur - Anurognathus ammoni

21. Dinosaur - Jakapil kaniukura

22. Pseudosuchian - Purussaurus brasiliensis

23. Dinosaur - Ledumahadi mafube

24. Pseudosuchian - Sillosuchus longicervix

25. Pterosaur - Pteranodon longiceps

26. Dinosaur - Compsognathus longipes

27. Other - Tanystropheus longobardicus

28. Pseudosuchian - Eurycephalosuchus gannanensis

29. Pterosaur - Campylognathoides zitteli

30. Dinosaur - Iguanodon bernissartensis

[tales-of-kaimere]

Unearthed during World War 2 and described in 1959, Arambourgiania was the first of the giant azhdarchid pterosaurs to be discovered. Arambourgiania was taller than its close relatives Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx, and represents the more gracile build of these animals, while Hatzegopteryx represents the bulkier bauplan. Although many theories have been proposed for the lifestyle of these giant pterosaurs, from wading piscivores to soaring predators, the current theory is that they flew across vast territories but hunted prey from the ground. Although Hatzegopteryx likely hunted medium-sized prey, Arambourgania's slighter build suggests it preferred smaller prey. Arambourgiania has been found in both the Middle East and America, a testament to the endurance flying of these animals. Although their remains have not been found in association with competing predators, Arambourgiania likely shared some habitats with medium-sized tyrannosaurs that also lived around 70 million years ago. Given their imposing height and impressive wingspan, it is possible that Arambourgiania dominated kills by intimidation. 

Cheers, folks!

-Keenan

https://illustratedmenagerie.deviantart.com/art/Arambourgiania-philadelphiae-751620400