Montanazhdarcho minor
By Fabrizio De Rossi, retrieved from http://www.pteros.com/, a website dedicated to education about Pterosaurs.
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Name: Montanazhdarcho minor
Name Meaning: Azhdarchid from Montana
First Described: 1995
Described By: Padian, de Ricqlès & Horner
Classification: Avemetatarsalia, Ornithodira, Pterosauromorpha, Pterosauria, Macronychoptera, Novialoidea, Breviquartossa, Pterodactylomorpha, Monofenestrata, Pterodactyliformes, Caelidracones, Pterodactyloidea, Eupterodactyloidea, Ornithocheiroidea, Azhdarchoidea
Montanazhdarcho is our first in-order Azhdarchid, and what a great and weird looking genus to start out on. It was found in the Two Medicine Formation of Montana, living about 74 million years ago, in the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous. It isk nown from just a few fragments of the skeleton including parts of the jawas that indicate they were... quite large indeed. It had a wingspan of about 2.5 meters, and was first thought to be a more derived Azhdarchid, but now it is placed as a basal member of the group, and may be even more closely related to Tapejara rather than Azhdarcho proper. It was fairly small compared to other Azhdarchoids, believe it or not, but it still would have had a similar ecological niche to other Azhdarchoids - feeding on small dinosaurs and other vertebrates in its environment, like baby Maiasaura. It lived in a large, forested environment, with many rivers and small lakes, for Montanazhdarcho to hunt for small prey.
Sources:
http://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/montanazhdarcho.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montanazhdarcho
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