#ctenochasma

Ancient paleojunk I did when I was 13 in early 2016. Obvious Cicchetti, Smaniotto and Martyniuk inspiration here. I'm glad to see my love of raptorial avisaurs ended up being vindicated. Someday everyone else will love opposite-birds just as much as I do.

#Archovember Day 27 - Ctenochasma elegans

Ctenochasma is known for its many small, thin, closely-packed teeth that line the front half of its jaws, projecting outwards and forming a basket shape. It used to be thought that these unique teeth were used for filter feeding, but as Ctenochasma lacks the adaptations of its relative Pterodaustro, it is now thought that Ctenochasma fed more like a spoonbill, using the increased surface area of its jaws to feel around in mud and murky water.

C. elegans is the smallest Ctenochasma species, with a wingspan of only 9.8 inches!

By Chris Masnaghetti, 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: Ctenochasma roemeri, C. elegans, C. taqueti

Name Meaning: Comb Jaw

First Described: 1852

Described By: Meyer

Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Pterodactyliformes, Caelidracones, Pterodactyloidea, Archaeopterodactyloidea, Euctenochasmatia, Ctenochasmatoidea, Ctenochasmatidae, Ctenochasmatinae

Ctenochasma is another interesting pterosaur, primarily because of the many closely packed teeth in its elongated and narrow jaw. These teeth formed a comb, leading to its name, and imply a filter feeding lifestyle like in its cousin Pterodaustro. It lived around 150 to 145 million years ago, in the Tithonian age of the Late Cretaceous, and is known from the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany, as well as the Purbeck Group of Germany and the Calcaires tâchetés of France. It had a wingspan of about 0.7 meters, making it a fairly small pterosaur, but that was more common in the Jurassic than later forms in the Cretaceous. C. elegans, on the other hand, was even smaller, with a 0.25 meter long wingspan. Many specimens are known from this genus of a variety of ages. The jaws curved upward slightly, forming a spoon at the end, so it could scoop up invertebrates for food in its lagoon-dominated environment. They had crests on their heads as adults that would have been used for display. It may have floan much like modern skuas, given its wing shape. 

Sources:

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

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

For this fish friday I went to the Aquazoo in Düsseldorf after it had been closed for 3 years of renovation. I saw some old faces, some new faces and had a great time personally. I also found some really old faces - beautyful fossils

Including a little preview to Fishfriday in two weeks ( have something else planned for fishfriday next week )

Bothriolepis , a placoderm. But then we come to the jawless fishes. And its a perfect example for why researching them is so hard:

I present you Thyestes. ... No I swear its there! But I dont blame you! That rock is maybe as long as my smol grabby thumb. And if I didnt know what to look for .... I wouldnt see it either.