#pterodactylomorph

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Allkaruen koi

By Joschua Knüppe, retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs.

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: Allkaruen koi

Name Meaning: Ancient Brain

First Described: 2016

Described By: Codorniú et al. 

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha

Allkaruen is an early derived Pterodactylomorph from the Cañadon Asfalto Formation in Argentina, living about 182 to 168 million years ago, from the Early to Middle Jurassic, sometime between the Toarcian to Bajocian ages. It shows an intermediate evolutionary stage between early derived pterosaurs, such as the Rhamphorhynchoids, and the later derived Pterodactyloids like Pteranodon. It is known from some portions of the skeleton, but more than anything it is known from a very well preserved braincase. It shows a mixture of traits found in more derived and less derived pterosaur brains, indicating that the brains of pterosaurs evolved with changes taking place in some parts of the brain, while others remaining the same (a phenomenon known as mosaic evolution). Even though it wasn’t preserved, it probably had a long tail. 

Sources:

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

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

Shout out goes to @freshcoffeeanddreams!

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Sordes pilosus

By Chris Masnaghetti, retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs.

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: Sordes pilosus

Name Meaning: Hairy Filth

First Described: 1971

Described By: Sharov

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha

Sordes was a pterosaur from the Karabastau Svita in Kazakhstan, living about 155.7 million years ago, in the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic. It was a fairly small pterosaur, with a 0.63 meter long wingspan - a relatively short wingspan with respect to the rest of it’s body. It also had a short neck and a very long tail, and was preserved with extensive pycnofibres. In fact, this was the first proof that pterosaurs had such structures, that would have been used for insulation and streamlining in flight. Given that both pterosaurs and dinosaurs show very similar filamentous covering in this manner, it stands to reason that the covering is not only homologous, but ancestral to the group of both (Ornithodira). It probably fed on tough invertebrates and fast amphibians, based on it’s teeth. 

Sources:

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

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

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

Shout out goes to @bekkahmercury!