[dinosaur] Pterosaur wing bones from Cretaceous of Antarctic Peninsula (free pdf)

Ben Creisler
[email protected]

A recent paper not yet mentioned, with free pdf:


Alexander W.A. Kellner, Taissa Rodrigues, Fabiana R. Costa, Luiz C.
Weinschütz, Rodrigo G. Figueiredo, Geovane A. de Souza, Arthur S. Brum,
Lúcia H.S. Eleutério, Carsten W. Mueller & Juliana M. Sayão (2019)
Pterodactyloid pterosaur bones from Cretaceous deposits of the Antarctic
Peninsula.
Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 91(suppl 2):e20191300
doi: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__dx.doi.org_10.1590_0001-2D3765201920191300&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=ScXJdhGEAVH_LVk1wvH-Q_KEaxvQB-A5PT-o-p0Ksig&s=SyZZMvBl5zG7XPhPKrRkaJZwnRFQv_v5KbbIP7MIA50&e= .
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.scielo.br_scielo.php-3Fscript-3Dsci-5Fabstract-26pid-3DS0001-2D37652019000400519-26lng-3Den-26nrm-3Diso-26tlng-3Den&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=ScXJdhGEAVH_LVk1wvH-Q_KEaxvQB-A5PT-o-p0Ksig&s=0Hto5Yctba45EniHLFi3X67u59ZJOJa-xeQh9BcbVGY&e= 

Free pdf:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.scielo.br_pdf_aabc_v91s2_0001-2D3765-2Daabc-2D91-2Ds2-2De20191300.pdf&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=ScXJdhGEAVH_LVk1wvH-Q_KEaxvQB-A5PT-o-p0Ksig&s=xglbC2JJmnnwl52wJYgleMU8cY4Gw6sFNG-OmBFUMd4&e= 

Fossil vertebrates from Antarctica are considerably rare, hampering our
understanding of the evolutionary history of the biota from that continent.
For several austral summers, the PALEOANTAR project has been carrying out
fieldwork in the Antarctic Peninsula in search for fossils, particularly
Cretaceous vertebrates. Among the specimens recovered so far are two bones
referable to Pterosauria, more specifically to the Pterodacyloidea, the
first volant reptiles from Antarctica to be fully described. MN 7800-V
(part and counterpart) was recovered from a moraine at the Abernathy Flats
(Santa Marta Formation, Lachman Crags Member, Santonian-Campanian) on James
Ross Island. It is interpreted as the distal articulation of a first
phalanx of the wing finger, representing an animal with an estimated
wingspan between 3 and 4 m. The second specimen (MN 7801-V) comes from Vega
Island (Snow Hill Island Formation, Maastrichtian) and is identified as a
wing metacarpal IV of an animal with an estimated wingspan from 4 to 5 m.
These occurrences show that pterodactyloids inhabited the Antarctic
Peninsula at least during the Upper Cretaceous and demonstrate that large
pterosaurs were widespread through all parts of the planet during that
period.