#wukongopterid

[ppaleoartistgallery]

Skiphosoura bavarica

welcome, first described German wukongopterid: Skiphosoura bavarica!!!

Congrats to Hone et al., (2024) on the successful publication

[saritapaleo]

Archovember 2024 Day 14 - Cuspicephalus scarfi

Cuspicephalus scarfi was a wukongopterid pterosaur from Late Jurassic England. It’s name comes from the Latin cuspis for “point” and the Greek κεφαλή for “head”, and its species name is a reference to Gerald Scarfe who was known for caricatures with very pointy noses (including Margaret Thatcher as the “Torydactyl), and who was also the production designer for Disney’s Hercules. Cuspicephalus scarfi basically means “pointed head which could have been designed by Gerald Scarfe.” Looking at this animal you can probably see the resemblance! Cuspicephalus had a very long, angled skull, most of which was occupied by the air pockets in its fenestra. A low bony crest is present, which was likely the base of a much higher soft tissue crest. Like most other Jurassic pterosaurs, it had sharp interlocking teeth, and likely also had a long ornamented tail. Due to its small size and lightly built skull, it probably fed on small land animals like arthropods and worms.

Cuspicephalus scarfi was found in the Kimmeridge Clay Formation. This was a seaside environment and is known for its many fish, turtle, plesiosaur, and icthyosaur fossils. Other pterosaurs have been found here as well, but from later ages than Cuspicephalus. Other archosaurs would have included the stegosaur Dacentrurus, the iguanodontian Cumnoria, the megalosaurid Torvosaurus, and the thalattosuchians Bathysuchus, Cricosaurus, Dakosaurus, Metriorhynchus, Plesiosuchus, and Torvoneustes.

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!

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

“Ian”

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: Ian

Name Meaning: N/A

First Mentioned: 2016

Mentioned By: Cheng et al. 

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Darwinoptera, Wukongopteridae

“Ian” is an as-yet unnamed Wukognopterid from the Tiaojishan Formation of Liaoning, China, living in the Oxfordian age of the Late Jurassic, about 153 million years ago. It is preserved in three dimensions with a nearly complete skull and various portions of the skeletons. It, like other Wukongopterids, showed a mixture of traits of more derived and more basal pterosaurs; and it also had a very long skull, with a crest on the end of its snout that is unique from other Wukongopterids, which probably helped it be distinct as a species from other Wukongopterids in the area. It cannot be confidently recovered as separate from the other Wukongopterids, however, so it still hasn’t been officially named as a new genus. It was a sexually mature animal, though not fully grown, and the crest is different than other individuals in the formation at its ontogenetic stage. 

Sources:

Cheng, X., S. Jiang, X. Wang, and A. W. A. Kellner. 2016. New information on the Wukongopteridae (Pterosauria) revealed by a new specimen from the Jurassic of China. PeerJ 4:e2177; DOI 10.771/peerj.2177

Kellner, A. W. A. 2015. Comments on Triassic Pterosaurs with discussion about ontogeny and description of new taxa. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 87(2): 669-689. 

http://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/ian-the-wukongopterid.html

Shout out goes to @fadedpuns!

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[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Wukongopterus lii

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: Wukongopterus lii 

Name Meaning: Wukong Wing

First Described: 2009

Described By: Wang et al. 

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Darwinoptera, Wukongopteridae

Wukongopterus is our last Wukongopterid (until we get the funding we need to support extra entries) and the one that gave its name to the group. It is from the Daohugou Beds of Liaoning, China, living about 164 million years ago, in the Callovian age of the Middle Jurassic. It is known from a nearly complete, but compressed, skeleton, which lacks the back and middle of the skull. 

By Nobu Tamura, CC BY 3.0 

It was a small pterosaur, with a 73 centimeter wingspan, and may have been an insect eater. It had a long pair of jaws and short teeth, as well as a long tail. It probably had a crest on its head and a very small body, though of course, that is mostly extrapolated from its relatives. 

Sources:

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

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

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Shout out goes to @lgbmatt!

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Kunpengopterus sinensis

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: Kunpengopterus sinensis

Name Meaning: Whale Northern Lights Bird Wing 

First Described: 2010

Described By: Wang et al. 

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Darwinoptera, Wukongopteridae

Kunpengopterus is a Wukongopterid from the Tiaojishan Formation or Daohugou Beds in Jianchang County Liaoning, China. It’s age is under some debate, but it may be about 154 million years old, from the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic. It is known from a compressed fossil, with an elongated head and an elongated neck, as well as a low bony crest, and a long stiff tail. In its body were preserved the remains of a regurgitated fish, indicating that it may have fed on fish in its environment. 

Sources:

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

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

This is your friendly reminder that ADAD relies on reblogs up and until @staff gets it’s shit together. Please reblog this post.

Shout out goes to @walkingholidaay!

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Darwinopterus modularis, D. linglongtaensis, D. robustodens

D. modularis 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: Darwinopterus modularis, D. linlongtaensis, D. robustodens

Name Meaning: Darwin’s Wing

First Described: 2010

Described By: Lü et al. 

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Darwinoptera, Wukongopteridae

Darwinopterus is another Wukongopterid, and an important one in that it showed a very unique combination of derived and basal Pterosaur characteristics for the first time, with a long tail (similar to early derived Pterosaurs) and long neck vertebrae and a single skull opening in front of the eyes like later derived forms. 

D. robustodens by Joschua Knüppe

It was also unique; it had widely spaced teeth and short hand bones, with a very long tail that was stiffened by thin bony projections. It has three species assigned to it, as well: D. modularis had a very elongated skull and widely spaced spikey teeth; D. linglongtaensis had a taller skull and more cone-like teeth; and D. robustodens had very robust teeth. This probably indicates that each species had a different ecological niche, as they were found in similar locations. 

D. linglongtaensis by Joschua Knüppe

The biggest of these species was D. robustodens, which probably ate hard-shelled beetles while the other species ate more soft-bodied prey. It was as big as a robin, with longer wings. Sexual variation is also potentially known, or at least hypothesized about - broader pelvises have been found in some specimens, and larger crests in others. However, whether or not this is an accurate assessment is of course under debate. Eggs are also thought to be known, with a soft shell inside of a specimen that had two ovaries; the flaplings also may have been able to fly immediately after hatching. It’s eggs weighed about 6 grams and were small compared to the mother, much like those of modern non-avian reptiles. 

D. modularis by Nobu Tamura, CC BY 3.0

However, the specimen that had these eggs may not actually be Darwinopterus, but rather a different species, Kunpengopterus. In addition, other studies of baby pterosaurs show that they probably did have some sort of inital flightless stage, indicating that Pterosaur ontogeny is far from being completely understood. Darwinopterus was found in the Tiaojishan Formation of China, living about 160.89 to 160.25 million years ago, in the Oxfordian age of the Middle-Late Jurassic. 

Sources:

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

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

Shout out goes to @eonneo!

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Cuspicephalus scarfi

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: Cuspicephalus scarfi

Name Meaning: Point Head 

First Described: 2013

Described By: Martill & Etches

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Darwinoptera, Wukongopteridae

Cuspicephalus is our first Wukongopterid, a group of pterosaurs more derived than Rhamphorhynchids but less derived than the Pterodacytloids (such as Azhdarchids & Pteranodon, and Pterodactylus itself). They’re from China and the Uk and lived exclusively in the Jurassic, showing a mixture of traits that would be called “primitive” (ie, characteristic of more early-derived pterosaurs) and “advanced” (ie, characteristics of more late-derived pterosaurs). Cuspicephalus itself is known from England, specifically the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of Dorset, living about 155.7 to 153 million years ago, in the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic. 

By Nobu Tamura, CC BY-SA 3.0

It had a very elongate and large skull when compared to the rest of it’s body, with almost half of the skull occupied by a large skull opening. There was also a low and bony crest on the long snout, but it’s uncertain what shape it was in due to damage to the original specimen. It was one of the largest Wukongopterids, with a wingspan of about 1.2 meters long, though it definitely wasn’t one of the largest pterosaurs of the time. The crest was probably used for display. It also had a long tail, like other relatively early-derived pterosaurs. It lived alongside many marine reptiles and ocean life, but it probably ate mainly small land animals. 

Sources:

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

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

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

Shout out goes to @memeshapedregret!

[pterosauria]

Darwinopterus by Vitor-Silva