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| Skiphosoura bavarica Hone, Fitch, Selzer, Lauer & Lauer, 2024 Artwork by Gabriel Ugueto. |
Highlights:
• A new pterosaur, Skiphosoura bavarica, is named from the Jurassic of Germany
• The specimen is much larger than other known forms and is preserved in three dimensions
• The Skiphosoura helps document the transition from early pterosaurs to the pterodactyloids
• The tail is short but retains the supporting structures of earlier forms
Summary
For over a century, there was a major gap in our understanding of the evolution of the flying Mesozoic reptiles, the pterosaurs, with a major morphological gap between the early forms and the derived pterodactyloids. Recent discoveries have found a cluster of intermediate forms that have the head and neck of the pterodactyloids but the body of the early grade, yet this still leaves fundamental gaps between these intermediates and both earlier and more derived pterosaurs. Here, we describe a new and large Jurassic pterosaur, Skiphosoura bavarica gen. et sp. nov., preserved in three dimensions, that helps bridge the gap between current intermediate pterosaurs and the pterodactyloids. A new phylogeny shows that there is a general progression of key characteristics of increasing head size, increasing length of neck and wing metacarpal, modification to the fifth toe that supports the rear wing membrane, and gradual reduction in tail length and complexity from earlier pterosaurs into the first pterodactyloids. This also shows a clear evolution of the increasing terrestrial competence of derived pterosaurs. Furthermore, this closes gaps between the intermediates and their ancestors and descendants, and it firmly marks the rhamphorhynchines and ctenochasmatid clades as, respectively, being the closest earliest and latest groups to this succession of transitional forms.
Keywords: Monofenestrata, Wukongopteridae, non-pterodactyloid, Pterosauria, Solnhofen, phylogeny
Taxonomy:
Pterosauria (Kaup, 1834)
Breviquartossa (Unwin, 2003 sensu Andres et al., 2014)
Monofenestrata (Lü et al., 2010 sensu Andres et al., 2014)
Pterodactyliformes (Andres et al., 2014)
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| Photograph of the original specimen of Skiphosoura bavarica in natural and UV lighting. |
Skiphosoura gen. nov.
Skiphosoura bavarica sp. nov.
Diagnosis: A large, non-pterodactyloid pterodactyliform pterosaur (Figures 1 and S1–S11) with the following unique autapomorphies for this grade: raised margins of the alveoli in the maxillary dentition and laterally developed; variable tooth spacing with anterior teeth close together and posterior teeth much further apart in the upper jaw; postexapophyses present on cervical vertebrae; procoleous dorsal vertebrae; tail short but still retaining filiform supporting zygapophyses and chevrons; humerus shorter than femur; ulna more than 1.5 times the length of the humerus; robust pteroid that is gently curved along its length; and wing phalanx 2 is subequal to wing phalanx 3.
Holotype: Specimen LF 4157—a near-complete but disarticulated specimen of a subadult animal that is missing only part of the skull, some vertebrae, and a few metapodial elements.
Locality information: The specimen was found in 2015 in the “visitor’s section” of the Schaudiberg Quarry near Mühlheim, Bavaria, Germany, which has yielded other recent pterosaur finds. ...
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| Life restoration of two Skiphosoura bavarica in flight. Artwork by Gabriel Ugueto. |
Etymology: Skiphosoura derives from “skyphos” and “oura,” Ancient Greek for “sword” and “tail,” in reference to the short, stiff, and tapering caudal series of the animal, with bavarica in reference to the Free State of Bavaria in Germany where the specimen was found.
David William Elliott Hone, Adam Fitch, Stefan Selzer, René Lauer and Bruce Lauer. 2024. A new and large monofenestratan reveals the evolutionary transition to the pterodactyloid pterosaurs. Current Biology. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.023
