A new and large monofenestratan reveals the evolutionary transition to the pterodactyloid pterosaurs.

Curr Biol

Lauer Foundation for Paleontology, Science and Education, Wheaton, IL 60189, USA.

Published: December 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • There has been a long-standing gap in understanding the evolution of flying reptiles called pterosaurs, particularly between early forms and the more advanced pterodactyloids.
  • Recent findings have identified new intermediate pterosaur fossils that show a mix of features from both groups, but more research is needed to connect them conclusively.
  • The discovery of a new Jurassic pterosaur, Skiphosoura bavarica, helps fill in these gaps and indicates a clear progression of physical traits that led to modern pterodactyloids, improving our understanding of their evolutionary history.

Article Abstract

For over a century, there was a major gap in our understanding of the evolution of the flying Mesozoic reptiles, the pterosaurs, with a major morphological gap between the early forms and the derived pterodactyloids. Recent discoveries have found a cluster of intermediate forms that have the head and neck of the pterodactyloids but the body of the early grade, yet this still leaves fundamental gaps between these intermediates and both earlier and more derived pterosaurs. Here, we describe a new and large Jurassic pterosaur, Skiphosoura bavarica gen. et sp. nov., preserved in three dimensions, that helps bridge the gap between current intermediate pterosaurs and the pterodactyloids. A new phylogeny shows that there is a general progression of key characteristics of increasing head size, increasing length of neck and wing metacarpal, modification to the fifth toe that supports the rear wing membrane, and gradual reduction in tail length and complexity from earlier pterosaurs into the first pterodactyloids. This also shows a clear evolution of the increasing terrestrial competence of derived pterosaurs. Furthermore, this closes gaps between the intermediates and their ancestors and descendants, and it firmly marks the rhamphorhynchines and ctenochasmatid clades as, respectively, being the closest earliest and latest groups to this succession of transitional forms.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.023DOI Listing

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