#tupandactylus navigans

[huttuharakka]

Tupandactylus navigans

Decided to draw some quick little paleoart after a long time.

I just love these guys so much!

They look so silly :))

[saritawolff]

#Archovember Day 3 - Tupandactylus navigans

There were at least two species of the Tapejarid pterosaur Tupandactylus: T. imperator (who I’ve drawn previously) and T. navigans. Of the two, T. navigans is smaller, with a straighter, more upright crest. (A 2021 study suggests that the two species could actually represent sexually dimorphic members of the same species, but more detailed study is required to support this.) Either way, Tupandactylus is known for its huge keratinous crest, and T. navigans especially for its sharp shark-fin profile. This large crest likely limited T. navigans’ flight ability, relegating it to spending most of its time on the ground, only taking short flights to evade predators.

In 2022, A specimen of Tupandactylus imperator was discovered to have very complex branching pycnofibers (feather-like filaments unique to pterosaurs) that were much closer to true feathers than previously thought possible in pterosaurs. This could be further evidence that feathers are a basal trait to Avemetatarsalians. Also, similar to Anchiornis, Tupandactylus has been found with preserved melanosomes. However, paleontologists did not attempt to infer the color of the animal, but merely noted that the melanosomes were varied between the skin of the crest and the pycnofibers on its skull, probably providing some sort of contrast for the head ornamentation. No doubt imperator’s smaller cousin navigans was similar.

Living in Early Cretaceous Brazil, Tupandactylus navigans had a diverse array of frogs, lizards, and invertebrates to prey on, including moths, lacewings, mayflies, scorpions, and solifugids. T. navigans could have also preyed on small dinosaurs and their eggs, such as Enantiornithine birds and the compsognathid Ubirajara. T. navigans would have shared its environment with many other pterosaur species, such as its cousin T. imperator, Arthurdactylus, Aymberedactylus, Brasileodactylus, Lacusovagus, and Ludodactylus.

(As I’ve drawn T. imperator previously, but not with its own size chart, I’ve chosen to include it as a bonus here so the two species can be compared. I’ve also updated my imperator design a bit, as it was drawn before the 2022 study.)

[oneweirdreptileaday]

Tupandactylus navigans

a paper came out describing a fossil of this species thats 90% complete including the crest!

[chaoskirin]

More dino art! The first is a more accurate depiction of what Blue the “velociraptor” from the Jurassic World movies should look like. The second is an Irritator trying to make a meal out of Tupandactylus, and the third is Sinosauropteryx, a dinosaur we actually know the colors of!

[actual-haise]

Tupandactylus navigans soaring at high altitude, but not quite in the danger zone yet.

[datgreenmonstah]

“Tupandactylus navigans”

Been working on this on and off, haven’t drawn too many pterosaurs, thought the newly described tup was a good start.

Looking at the fossil and the beak, it was giving me hornbill vibes, where the gap allows for being more precise

One day I’ll do more with these when I’m not working

[adamworks]

Hi there!

Sketch: Tupandactylus “Tupan Finger”

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Tupandactylus imperator, T. navigans

By Elia Smaniotto, 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: Tupandactylus imperator, T. navigans

Name Meaning: Tupan Finger

First Described: 2007

Described By: Kellner & Campos

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Pterodactyliformes, Caelidracones, Pterodactyloidea, Eupterodactyloidea, Ornithocheiroidea, Azhdarchoidea, Tapejaromorpha, Tapejaridae, Tapejarinae

Tupandactylus is my absolute favorite pterosaur because of its absolutely ridiculous crest. This is the magic of sexual selection at work, my friends. Look at that ridiculous thing. Let’s just admire it for a second. Also everyone loves this pterosaur so there are actually a lot of reconstructions for me to use in this article hence the overly verbose and rambly article. Look at that crest. Seriously. Why. Why was this evolutionarily viable. I am just in awe. It was originally lumped in with Tapejara, but it was separated out with further research. A diagram comparing the heads of both Tupandactylus species compared with Tapejara is shown below, demonstrating the differences in these sexual display structures - also the main difference between T. imperator and T. navigans. 

By Matt Martyniuk, CC BY 3.0

Absolutely ridiculous. It is known from the Crato Formation of Brazil, living about 112 million years ago, at the boundary of the Aptian to Albian ages of the Early Cretaceous. It had no teeth and, as stated, its crest was excessive, made up of both bone and keratin. It also had a smaller crest on the underside of its jaw, like a keel. It also had pycnofibres all over its body like other pterosaurs, including the jaws, weirdly enough. 

By Dmitry Bogdanov, CC BY-SA 3.0 

Though distinct from Tapejara, it was still somewhat closely related to it and belongs in the same family group with it, as the same general type of pterosaur. Still, it is different enough (and distintantly related enough) for it to be its own genus, and both T. navigans and T. imperator are in a group together to the exclusion of other Tapejarids, helping them be grouped together. This is awkward, because most people know Tapejara from Walking with Dinosaurs - but the pterosaur in that series is actually Tupandactylus before it was called Tupandactylus. Ah well, what can you do. 

By Nobu Tamura, CC BY-SA 4.0 

It had a wingspan of about 5 meters, making it a very big pterosaur, and it would have been adapted for soaring over large distances and also climbing and some terrestrial locomotion. Its crest on its head, both the upper one and the lower one, may or may not have been used in aiding flight, but there really isn’t any evidence for this hypothesis unfortunately. More studies are needed to understand if the crests were used for anything other than display between mates in this species. 

By Dmitry Bogdanov, CC BY-SA 3.0

As for what it ate, it’s still a question much like with other Tapejarids, with tupandactylus potentially eating fruit and using its jaws to crush fruit and flowers in its mouth, or it may have eaten meat as well and been more of a generalist. It also lived alongside other pterosaurs and probably used its crests to distinguish itself from them, specifically Arthurdactylus and Brasileodactylus. All in all, a magnificent weirdo. 

Sources:

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

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