For some reason I missed this thread until now. Pterosaurs are at the
top of my paleontological interests [there are a few others that share the top],
and a new find of this magnitude is always something to celebrate.
On Saturday, August 28, 2021 at 6:18:12 AM UTC-4, Pandora wrote:
Weird animal.
The head, including the crest, is weirdly shaped, I agree.
Part of the weirdness is the exceptionally thin bony spike that
is some 47 centimeters long, and supports a wide sagittal crest consisting of soft tissue.
There are some fine reproductions as well as a very detailed picture of head and crest, showing the extent of the crest.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254789.g005
The postcranial skeleton doesn't seem to have any big surprises,
but what makes it remarkable is that it is almost complete,
whereas up to the discovery, nothing was unequivocally assigned to
its postcranial skeleton.
Osteology of an exceptionally well-preserved tapejarid skeleton from
Brazil: Revealing the anatomy of a curious pterodactyloid clade.
Abstract
A remarkably well-preserved, almost complete and articulated new
specimen (GP/2E 9266) of Tupandactylus navigans is here described for
the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil. The new specimen
comprises an almost complete skeleton, preserving both the skull and post-cranium, associated with remarkable preservation of soft tissues,
which makes it the most complete tapejarid known thus far.
There are some close competitors, it seems, but this may be
the first case of soft tissues being preserved, and extensively at that.
"Most Brazilian tapejarids are known from isolate skulls or partial skeletons, with the exceptions of Caiuajara dobruskii and Tapejara wellnhoferi, from which several disarticulated specimens were recovered [5,6]. Up to now, the most complete tapejarid
specimens were found in the Early Cretaceous of China [7], but their anatomy has not yet been described in detail."
That's welcome news about Tapejara: back when the "pterosaur bible" [a] was published, only the skull was known.
[a] _The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Pterosaurs_, by Peter Wellnhofer, [b] Crescent Books, 1991.
[Including some 600 illustrations, many full-page.]
[b] I find it heart-warming that the author, who lavished so much work on this monumental book,
is immortalized by the species name [c] of Tapejara wellnhoferi, which was originally described by A.W.A. Kellner.
On page 130 there is both a photograph of a Tapejara skull and a fine restoration
that makes its relationship to Tupandactylus navigans clear.
[c] With commendable modesty, Wellnhofer only mentions the genus name in the book.
CT-Scanning was performed to allow the assessment of bones still covered by sediment. The specimen can be assigned to Tupa. navigans due to its
vertical supra-premaxillary bony process and short and rounded
parietal crest. It also bears the largest dentary crest among
tapejarine pterosaurs and a notarium, which is absent in other representatives of the clade. The new specimen is here regarded as an
adult individual. This is the first time that postcranial remains of
Tupa. navigans are described, being also an unprecedented record of an articulated tapejarid skeleton from the Araripe Basin.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254789
Excellent catch, as usual, Pandora. Your posts are almost invariably food
for thought, and give access to some marvelous details. This find almost
cries out for a popularization by a companion journal of _Science_
or _Nature_. Until then, the remarkable number and detail of the illustrations are a reasonably satisfying substitute. They even include a full color picture of the
sort that typically introduces the animal at the top of the popularization:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0254789.g017
illustration C.
Peter Nyikos
Professor, Dept. of Mathematics -- standard disclaimer--
University of South Carolina
http://people.math.sc.edu/nyikos
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