#Pterodactyloids

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 8 - Zhejiangopterus linhaiensis

Azhdarchids are known as the largest flying animals of all time, the last great stand of the pterosaurs before . They contained mighty giants like Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx, who ruled the skies of the Late Cretaceous. But not all azhdarchids were flying carnivorous giraffes. Some of them were downright tiny, while others reached a more modest, respectable size. Slightly larger than a female Pteranodon, Zhejiangopterus linhaiensis was one such “moderately large” azhdarchid.

Zhejiangopterus lived in Late Cretaceous China and is so far the most complete azhdarchid known, making it very influential to our understanding of this amazing family of pterosaurs. As several specimens have been uncovered, it was probably fairly common in the Tangshang Formation. It lacked the bony crest seen in many of their relatives, instead opting for a long, straight, graceful profile. Like other azhdarchids, Zhejiangopterus were likely terrestrial stalkers similar to storks and ground hornbills, only using their wings to escape predators or move to new hunting grounds.

Not many other animals have been found in the Tangshang Formation. Alongside Zhejiangopterus, there is only the avialan Yandangornis (whose eggs and chicks and perhaps even adults, if they could catch them, could have been prey for the pterosaur) and an unnamed therizinosauroid. However, living in Late Cretaceous China, it could have also come across the titanosaur Dongyangosaurus further South, and further inland: the ankylosaur Gobisaurus, the pachycephalosaurid Sinocephale, the ornithomimid Sinornithomimus, the carcharodontosaurid Shaochilong, and the mysterious theropod Chilantaisaurus. No doubt there were also plenty of lizards, snakes, mammals, amphibians, and small dinosaurs hiding in the coastal grasses, ready to be nabbed by the dragon of Zhejiang.

[fishsfailureson]

Day 16- Nyctosaurus

Prompts

[esmaniottoart]

Exercise_Anhanguera. Digital, 2023.

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[ownencyclopedia]

���Rhamphorhynchus | Existed from 163.5 million years ago to 145 million years ago

Rhamphorhynchus was about 50 cm (20 inches) long, with a long skull and large eyes; the nostrils were set back on the beak. The teeth slanted forward and interlocked and were probably used to eat fish. The body was short, and each thin wing membrane stretched from a long fourth finger.

Rhamphorhynchus lived during the Late Jurassic and resided in Africa and Europe. The first Rhamphorhynchus fossil was discovered in 1846.

Rhamphorhynchus muensteri is from the Late Jurassic limestone beds of Southern Germany and is one of the largest non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs. Like all pterosaurs, Rhamphorhynchus was capable of powered flight, though was potentially unusual in that young juveniles were precocial and flew from a very young age

[alphynix]

Wukongopterus lii was a pterosaur that lived during the mid-to-late Jurassic, about 164 million years ago, in what is now northeastern China. It was fairly small, with a wingspan of around 70cm (~2'4"), and showed a mixture of anatomical features in-between the long-tailed short-headed 'rhamphorhynchoids' and the short-tailed long-headed pterodactyloids.

Its long jaws were lined with tiny pointed conical teeth, suggesting it was adapted for primarily feeding on insects. It also had a very slight overbite, with the first two pairs of teeth in its upper jaw protruding almost vertically over the end of its lower jaw.

As a fully mature adult it would have had a low bony crest on its head that probably supported a larger keratinous structure – similar to other known wukongopterids – although the exact size and shape is unknown since the one confirmed specimen of Wukongopterus is missing that particular part of its skull. Another fossil nicknamed "Ian" may represent a second individual of this species, showing a different crest arrangement further forward on its snout, so I've made two different versions of today's image to reflect that possibility.

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NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

References:

Cheng, Xin, et al. "New information on the Wukongopteridae (Pterosauria) revealed by a new specimen from the Jurassic of China." PeerJ 4 (2016): e2177. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2177/supp-1

Garland, Nick. “Ian the Wukongopterid.” Pteros, https://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/ian-the-wukongopterid.html

Wang, Xiaolin, et al. "An unusual long-tailed pterosaur with elongated neck from western Liaoning of China." Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 81 (2009): 793-812. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0001-37652009000400016

Wikipedia contributors. “Wukongopterus.” Wikipedia, 8 Dec. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wukongopterus

XuanYu Zhou 周炫宇. Anatomy, Systematics and Paleopathology of Pterosaurs: insights based on new specimens from China. 2023. Hokkaido University, PhD thesis. https://doi.org/10.14943/doctoral.k1560

[cenospire]

Some more paleoart - two pterodactyloid pterosaurs (perhaps Mimodactylus or something similar) play along a forested clifftop during the late Cretaceous. This one took a bit longer than usual, glad to have it finally finished!

[saritapaleo]

Archovember 2024 Day 16 - Caelestiventus hanseni

Hailing from Late Triassic North America, Caelestiventus hanseni turned what we knew about pterosaurs on its head. Before its description in 2015, it was thought that all of the early pterosaurs of the Late Triassic were small coastal animals, feeding on fish and insects by the shore. But Caelestiventus lived in a desert, 65 million years before other known desert-dwelling pterosaurs. Also, up until its discovery, only some pterodactyloid pterosaurs were known to he desert-dwellers, but Caelestiventus was a dimorphodontid. Dimorphodon itself being found in the Early Jurassic, this puts the origins of the dimorphodontid family much further back than originally thought, and in North America. Caelestiventus is also the oldest known pterosaur from North America.

While most Triassic pterosaurs are very small, Caelestiventus was (comparatively) large with a 17.8 cm (7.0 in) long skull and estimated 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) long wingspan. The only known specimen is a subadult, so it’s possible Caelestiventus could have grown larger. It had three different tooth shapes: long fang-like spikes, large "leaf-shaped" blades, and tiny blades, which it may have used to catch and eat lizards and small insects.

Found in the Nugget Sandstone Formation, Caelestiventus would have of course lived in a large desert full of sandy dunes, dotted by seed plants of the extinct, cycad-like order Bennettitales. No other named fossils are known from this area, though theropod tracks have been found, and indeterminate fragments of theropods, sphenosuchians, drepanosaurids, sphenodontians, and lepidosaurs are known.

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!

[harpagornis]

On pterosaur footprints

A maker of Rhamphichnus footprints by Mark Witton. Note pronated arms.

There are three main pterosaur ichnotaxa (footprints assigned taxonomically):

Pteraichnus is by far the most common, occuring from the Jurassic to the very end of the Cretaceous, and can be considered a bit of a wastebasket taxon, though it’s well distinguished by lateral three-fingered foreprints and large hindprints.

Haenamichnus are Maastrichtian tracks assigned specifically to azhdarchids. These are very large in size and differ from Pteraichnus by having more compact footprints, with digits barely differentiated.

Rhamphichnus are tracks made by non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs. They differ from the rest in having pronated forelimbs and more square-shaped hindprints with longer toes.

These foot prints offer quite a lot about pterosaur palaeobiology. Haenamichnus validates the notion that azhdarchids had compact feet and were specialised to hunt in terrestrial environments, while Rhamphichnus shows that early pterosaurs could rotate their forelimbs like mammals can. But the ones I find most interesting are the ‘generic’ Pteraichnus. While as mentioned above they might be a bit of a wastebasket, they are typically assumed to be made by ctenochasmatoids or dsungaripteroids (Witton 2013). Since they last until the end of the Cretaceous, this could indicate the presence of these pterosaurs well past the end of their fossils.

This has precedent, as Pteraichnus attributed to dsungaripteroids have been found in Late Cretaceous deposits, tens of millions of years after the closest footprint makers disappear from the fossil reccord. Therefore, they indicate long fossil ghost lineages.

Hopefully, more studies will be conducted on pterosaur footprints.

[paleostock]

Volgadraco

Volgadraco was a pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Cretaceous of Russia.

License this stock resource at: https://paleostock.com/resource/volgadraco-stock-photo

Illustration by Joshua Tedder

[catboybiologist]

Okay, so, I don't know how much specific interest you may or may not have in pterosaurs, I can't recall seeing you mention them before (but also my memory is... ummm...).

So basically, which gender are you, rhamphorhynchoid or pterodactyloid?

As with any favorite or binary choosing question, especially about gender and extinct life, I can't choose! But if I had to, I would choose rhamphorynchoids. They're honestly cute in a way, and so much more elegant than those dirty, clumsy looking, dopey pterodac- *stabbed*

Agh

Oh god

Oh no

Oh fuck

All glory to Pterodactyloidea.

All glory to Tapejara.

All glory to Hatzegopteryx.

All glory to Quetzalcoatlus.

All glory to Azhdarchoidea.

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 28 - Tapejara wellnhoferi

The Tapejarids were Cretaceous pterodactyloids famous for their impressive crests. I’ve drawn a handful of various tapejarids over the years, I figured it was finally time for the type species of the family: Tapejara wellnhoferi.

Smaller than their close relatives, Tupandactylus, Tapejara was still a mid-sized pterosaur. It had a bony semi-circular crest over the snout and a bony prong that extended back behind the head, which could have supported a number of different soft tissue crest shapes. Unlike the Tupandactylus species, Tapejara fossils did not preserve signs of a keratinous crest. Study on Tapejara’s scleral rings have shown that these pterosaurs may have been cathameral (active at irregular periods during both day and night, whenever resources are available). There were a variety of pterosaurs in Early Cretaceous Brazil, filling both land predator and fish-eating niches. Tapejara could have filled a different niche as an omnivore or full herbivore.

Like most of Cretaceous Brazil, the Romualdo Formation was a hotspot for pterosaurs. Tapejara wellnhoferi would have lived alongside many species of Anhanguera as well as other anhanguerids like Maaradactylus, Cearadactylus, and Tropeognathus. There were also ornithocheirids like Araripesaurus and Brasileodactylus, and targaryendraconids like Barbosania. It wasn’t the only pterosaur with an impressive crest either, as it would have also shared the environment with other tapejarids like Thalassodromeus, Kariridraco, and Tupuxuara. While pterosaurs dominated the landscape, there were also dinosaurs here, such as the spinosaurid Irritator, the compsognathid Mirischia, and other indeterminate theropods like Aratasaurus and Santanaraptor. There were even some pseudosuchians here, including an Araripesuchus species, Araripesuchus gomesii.

[es46]

Marvel's Sauron, but his pterosaur mutation evokes an azhdarchid instead of the more conventional pterodactyloid. I don't think Spider-Man is happy any which way.

[esmaniottoart]

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Exercise_”Fly No More” starring Fictional Pterosaur.

Digital, 2020.

Original sketch: https://esmaniottoart.tumblr.com/post/189375216068/sketchfly-no-more-starring-fictional-pterosaur.

[mineralsrocksandfossiltalks]

Monday Musings: What caused the end of the Jurassic Period?

That's a tough question to answer. Scientists has a few hypotheses:

1.) Major Marine Regression

The is evidence in Europe of a major sea level drop which would have caused localized extinctions. I mean, look how low sea level dropped within 25 million years!

2.) Volcanism

The Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic saw the creation of a large volcanic plateau in the north Pacific and numerous volcanic deposits where Gondwana was beginning to separate. None of these explain the Laurasian extinctions though.

3.) Asteroid Impact

There were three minor asteroid impacts during the Late Jurassic; one in South Africa, one in Australia, and one in Norway. None were large enough to have a global impact.

5.) Sampling Bias

We simply might just be missing part of the picture. In western North America, we are actually missing a chunk of time in our rocks between the end of the Jurassic and the beginning of the Cretaceous. We also see many Jurassic lagerstätten worldwide and a definite lack of such in the early Cretaceous. There also appear to be decreases in sauropod diversity, megalosaurids, and stegosaurids as well as complete extinction of non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs. This could be because they real were going extinct or because they moved to enviorments that don't preserve fossils. We may never know.

6.) There wasn't a mass extinction, just a faunal turnover. This something we can see in the Cedar Mountain Formation. Perhaps there was another one from Jurassic to Cretaceous, we just haven't found it yet.

As of right now, the boundary between the Jurassic and Cretaceous is formally undefined due to the presence of more endemic flora and fauna than cosmopolitan (more species specific to one area than global distribution). What is agreed upon was that the Jurassic ended in a cooling period that continued into the early Cretaceous. Maybe one day we will have more answers but for now it remains a mystery.

[artapir]

Assembly and maintenance of cyberdino chassis, plus a couple of weird outliers: BOTTOM LEFT: Extrasolar marine infiltrator engineered for insertion among panspermic pterodactyloid x mosasaur hybrids.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Partial museum reconstruction of a Flyrannoborg specialized for covert operations on Tyrannoflugel worlds.

Midjourney 6