#pterosauria

For a show about prehistoric life Surviving Earth sure has few pterosaurs. Only two to be exact, so this should be brief.

The “ptorotopterosaur”

This isn’t an actual species but a speculative missing link between lagerpetids and pterosaurs. It is portrayed as a glider (a minor pet peeve of mine, as flight probably didn’t evolve from gliding) but whatever. It is portrayed as gliding down to the beaches to feed on marine reptile eggs and young, which is a step up from depictions of “protopterosaurs” or other “proto-flyers” hunting after aerial insects, which would be too agile for mere gliders.

The Pteranodon

Oh sorry, the “Pteranodin” as it is pronounced. It is fairly accurate, down to giving it hyper-retracted wing membranes like the pterosaurs in Prehistoric World. It feeds by diving underwater after prey as inferred by its anatomy and diet; it swims using the hindlimbs only, of which there is actual evidence in ctenochasmatoid pterosaurs but doubtful in the small-hindlimbed pteranodontids. The way it launches from the water is also unnatural, and ultimately serves as shark fodder.

Concluding remarks.

I feel disappointed there are no more pterosaurs. For those there are they lean on the speculative, but are otherwise pretty reasonable.

I refuse to use the word "dino" to describe Pretzel in this post bc he is not a dinosaur, he is a pterosaur

Anyway!

Still no new croc stuff from me (but I got something in the works), so instead more general paleonews. Today, a new pterosaur ancestor and it looks WEIRD.

This is Venetoraptor gassenae (Gassen's Plunderer from Vale Veneto) is a new lagerpetid literally just published a couple of minutes ago. According to its description (and as seen in the image) it had a toothless premaxilla that was hooked like the beak of a raptorial bird. It may have been covered in keratin, which is interesting as the skulls of early pterosaurs appear to have been smooth. The hands are obviously enormous and the size differences between the fingers are well in line with what pterosaurs would later have (i.e. the fourth finger is the longest, the fifth is reduced in Venetoraptor and absent in pterosaurs), but the legs are still much longer. The claws are described as sharp and scythe-like and again, its interesting that the fourth is the longest, as in other lagerpetids its usually the third that exceeds all others in length. Interesting connection between Veneto and pterosaurs for sure.

In terms of relationships it was found to be nested deep in lagerpetids, which, expectedly are recovered as the sister group to pterosaurs.

It seems to represent a whole new ecomorph not previously known from this group and interestingly coexisted not just with the related Ixalerpeton, but also with some early dinosaurs like Buriolestes. The beak is also interesting. Similar beaks have evolved multiple times in Triassic archosaurs and the hooked tip in particular is common even in modern birds, tho the authors argue that we know too little to say what precisely it was used for. Could be used for ripping flesh (like in falcons) or for eating fruit (like in parrots, fun fact, falcons and parrots are close relatives). As for the hand, the authors suggest that a big driver for ornithodirans playing around with them as the fact that they were not forced to be quadrupedal, so they could be more experimental, leading to hands fit for grasping, climbing and eventually flight.

Rhamphorhynchus!!