A new genus and species of monofenestratan pterosaur has been identified from partial cranial and post cranial remains found in Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina. Named Melkamter pateko, the ancient flying reptile predates the currently oldest member of the clade Monofenestrata by at least 8 and probably 10 million years.
Melkamter pateko lived in what is now Argentina during the latest Early Jurassic epoch, between 184 and 174 million years ago.
The ancient species is a member of Monofenestrata, a large clade of pterosaurs consisting of the Darwinoptera, Anurognathidae and Pterodactyloidea.
“Pterosaurs were the first clade of actively flying tetrapods and were highly successful during the Mesozoic, achieving a global distribution from the Triassic to the Cretaceous,” said Dr. Alexandra Fernandes from the Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie and colleagues from Germany and Argentina.
“Over that time, the pterosaur bauplan transitioned from the basal non-monofenestratan ‘non-pterodactyloid’ body style to that of the more derived pterodactyloids.”
“This evolutionary event has become better understood in recent years, with the recognition of the clade Darwinoptera, which have been largely considered as ‘intermediate’ monofenestratans that show a morphological array of attributes during this transition, combining plesiomorphic characters of ‘non-pterodactyloids’ with pterodactyloid features.”
“The Mesozoic pterosaur record is abundant in the northern hemisphere, whereas the record in the southern hemisphere is comparatively more scarce.”
“With the possible exclusion of the Argentinian Allkaruen koi, non-pterodactyloid monofenestratan pterosaurs have thus far only been recovered from the northern hemisphere, namely the UK, Germany and China, where they first appeared during the Bathonian age (168 to 165 million years ago).”
“The apparent success of these monofenestratan forms and their pterodactyloid…
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