#azhdarchoid

Pterosaur Keresdrakon vilsoni, of Early Cretaceous, Brazil!

Our next pterosaur is the desert-dwelling azhdarchoid, Keresdrakon vilsoni. Keresdrakon was found in a bonebed called the Cemitério dos Pterossauros ("Pterosaur Graveyard") Quarry, surrounded by hundreds of the much more common Caiuajara, a small tapejarid, as well as the noasaurid theropod Vespersaurus. Among pterosaurs, this is the first direct evidence of sympatry: direct association with other species (instead of being found in the same stratigraphic unit). Keresdrakon’s long legs and azhdarchid-like beak seem to hint that it was an opportunistic predator, and its association with the Caiuajaras may not have been friendly. Perhaps Keresdrakon was poking around their colony, looking for unattended eggs and flaplings. Or maybe it was just a scavenger picking at the remains of the smaller pterosaurs when a sudden sandstorm or a flash flood caused it to drown in the same oasis.

Aside from Caiuajara and Vespersaurus, Keresdrakon vilsoni would have lived alongside a few other known animals in the Goio-Erê Formation. These include another tapejarid, Torukjara, the herbivorous ceratosaurian Berthasaura, and the iguanian lizard Gueragama.

By Julio Lacerda; retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs.

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Name: Bogolubovia orientalis

First Described: 1989

Described By: Nessov

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

Bogolubovia is an Azhdarchid only known from a fragment of cervical vertebra which is now lost. It hailed from the Campanian Rybushka Formation of Russia (83-75 Ma, roughly). It was named as Ornithostoma orientalis in 1914, and then moved to its own genus Bogolubovia in 1989. It probably had a wingspan of around 4 meters. Not much else to say about it.

Source:

Tupandactylus imperator in the early evening sky.

Spiritual successor to this piece done back in September of 2015. The colour and integument of this restoration are based on an undescribed tapejarid cranium announced at EAVP last year - electron micrographs of the pycnofibers revealed rod-shaped, black-pigmented eumelanosomes, while micrographs of the crest showed an abundance of spherical, red-pigmented phaeomelanosomes. 

Tupandactylus hails from the Crato Formation of Brazil, and is named after the creator god of the Tupi and Guarani people.

New evidence is emerging that the pterosaur Hatzegopteryx, close relative of the famous Quetzalcoatlus, may have been a heck of a lot scarier than its giraffe-necked cousin, with a bulkier skull and neck for hacking away at prey it couldn’t swallow whole.