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Pterosaur diversity before the K/T event
Topic Started: Mar 13 2018, 03:58 PM (478 Views)
babehunter1324
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Here is the paper:

Some of you may had already been aware since it was among the abstracts of SVP 2017 (or was it SVP 2016?), aside from the new Pterosaurs from Morocco it also hints at several undescribed taxa of both birds and Pterosaurs, mainly from Lancian stage fossil sites in North America.

Anyways, the Tethys see was a treasure trove of Pterosaur diversity during the late Maastritchian and if birds did in any way proclude the diversity of Pterosaurs it was only among very small taxa, with Pterosaurs dominating anything between the 250 to 5 kg weight range.

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Edited by babehunter1324, Mar 13 2018, 04:18 PM.
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Furka
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So the Hell Creek Azdarchid is no longer considered a smaller Quetzalcoatlus ?
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babehunter1324
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Furka
Mar 13 2018, 04:23 PM
So the Hell Creek Azdarchid is no longer considered a smaller Quetzalcoatlus ?
Not exactly.

The Hell Creek Quetzalcoatlus is still considered valid and distinct and is labelled as Quetzalcoatlus sp. Javalina. The remains of the undescribed, much larger Hell Creek Azhdarchid are considered distinct for now, awaiting proper description.

Problem is that Quetzalcoatlus northropi itself has never been formally described AFAIK (and is very fragmentary) so assigning anything to the genus Quetzalcoatlus can be quite "problematic".
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TheNotFakeDK
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babehunter1324
Mar 13 2018, 04:53 PM
The Hell Creek Quetzalcoatlus is still considered valid and distinct and is labelled as Quetzalcoatlus sp. Javalina. The remains of the undescribed, much larger Hell Creek Azhdarchid are considered distinct for now, awaiting proper description.
The Javelina azhdarchid isn't from Hell Creek, it's from the Javelina formation (naturally), coexisting with the two Quetzalcoatlus species. Specifically it's the "snub-nosed" one that's occasionally mentioned in discussions of Javelina azhdarchids.

The giant Hell Creek azhdarchid is BMRP 2002.2, according to some of the paper's supplementary material. This specimen was found alongside Jane, and the paper describing it referred to it as cf. i]Quetzalcoatlus[/i] sp., i.e. it belonged to something to Quetzalcoatlus sp., and had estimated its wingspan as around 5 metres, similar to Q. sp. Somehow or other, this new paper estimated its wingspan at 9 metres, and I'm not quite sure how they got that estimate myself.

There are other Hell Creek azhdarchids though, including a smaller one with a wingspan of just over 4 metres.
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Acinonyx Jubatus
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This completely made my day... Not less than FOUR new species of maastrichtian pteranodontoids, and two new Azhdarchids. I'm in heaven.
Edited by Acinonyx Jubatus, Mar 13 2018, 09:34 PM.
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Incinerox
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Āeksiot Zaldrīzoti

Not only that, TWO THALASSODROMIDS!
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babehunter1324
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TheNotFakeDK
Mar 13 2018, 07:52 PM
babehunter1324
Mar 13 2018, 04:53 PM
The Hell Creek Quetzalcoatlus is still considered valid and distinct and is labelled as Quetzalcoatlus sp. Javalina. The remains of the undescribed, much larger Hell Creek Azhdarchid are considered distinct for now, awaiting proper description.
The Javelina azhdarchid isn't from Hell Creek, it's from the Javelina formation (naturally), coexisting with the two Quetzalcoatlus species. Specifically it's the "snub-nosed" one that's occasionally mentioned in discussions of Javelina azhdarchids.

The giant Hell Creek azhdarchid is BMRP 2002.2, according to some of the paper's supplementary material. This specimen was found alongside Jane, and the paper describing it referred to it as cf. i]Quetzalcoatlus[/i] sp., i.e. it belonged to something to Quetzalcoatlus sp., and had estimated its wingspan as around 5 metres, similar to Q. sp. Somehow or other, this new paper estimated its wingspan at 9 metres, and I'm not quite sure how they got that estimate myself.

There are other Hell Creek azhdarchids though, including a smaller one with a wingspan of just over 4 metres.
Thanks for clearing that up, I was going by memmory.
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Even
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@DG: Do note that those two are Alanqa and Aerotitan which are more likely to be azhdarchids, sadly
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heliosphoros
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This seems to suggest the hypothesis that pterosaurs did suffer a hit in the mid-Cretaceous turn over, only to diversify once again. The fact that they outright reclaimed some niches from birds must have enormous consequences for "no KT event" scenarios.
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Acinonyx Jubatus
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Incinerox
Mar 14 2018, 08:14 AM
Not only that, TWO THALASSODROMIDS!
Wait, what? Didn't see THAT in the article. Where'd they say that?
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heliosphoros
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Alanqa and Aerotitan are recovered as thalassodromids in the cladogram.
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Acinonyx Jubatus
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Found it. Unfortunately, they don't really explain that decision and admit it's not very tenable.
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