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New Aussie Pterosaur Discovered

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  • New Aussie Pterosaur Discovered

    Researchers in Australia have found the remains of a previously unknown type of pterosaur (winged reptile and not a dinosaur) in North West Queensland which is part of that country's "outback." The pterosaur lived back during the Early Cretaceous some 105 mya when much of Australia's interior was covered by the Eromanga Sea.

    The pterosaur was named Thapunngaka shawi, with the genus name consisting of two words from the local Wanamara language meaning "spear" and "mouth" with the species name honoring its discoverer, Len Shaw, an amateur fossil hunter who uncovered the remains some 40 years ago. So Thapunngaka shawi translates as "Shaw’s spear-mouth"

    Anyone seeing the fossil would understand why it was called this considering it's spear-like mouth which the lead researcher, Tim Richards from the University of Queensland's School of Biological Sciences, as being "savage" and a "fearsome beast."

    While only the well-preserved rostral portion of a crested mandible was recovered it was sufficient for the team to extrapolate more of Thapunngaka's features, including that it is the largest known Australian pterosaur with a wingspan of roughly 7 meters or 23' (between 5.83 to 9.47 meters or 19 to 31').

    The head was probably a little over a meter long and the jaw held approximately 40 needle-like teeth indicating that it was a piscivore (fish eater).


    Source: Researchers find a ‘fearsome dragon’ that soared over outback Queensland




    Australia's largest flying reptile has been uncovered, a pterosaur with an estimated seven-metre wingspan that soared like a dragon above the ancient, vast inland sea once covering much of outback Queensland.

    University of Queensland PhD candidate Tim Richards, from the Dinosaur Lab in UQ's School of Biological Sciences, led a research team that analysed a fossil of the creature's jaw, discovered on Wanamara Country, near Richmond in North West Queensland.

    "It's the closest thing we have to a real life dragon," Mr Richards said.

    "The new pterosaur, which we named Thapunngaka shawi, would have been a fearsome beast, with a spear-like mouth and a wingspan around seven metres.

    "It was essentially just a skull with a long neck, bolted on a pair of long wings.

    "This thing would have been quite savage.

    "It would have cast a great shadow over some quivering little dinosaur that wouldn't have heard it until it was too late."

    Mr Richards said the skull alone would have been just over one metre long, containing around 40 teeth, perfectly suited to grasping the many fishes known to inhabit Queensland's no-longer-existent Eromanga Sea.

    "It's tempting to think it may have swooped like a magpie during mating season, making your local magpie swoop look pretty trivial -- no amount of zip ties would have saved you.

    "Though, to be clear, it was nothing like a bird, or even a bat -- Pterosaurs were a successful and diverse group of reptiles -- the very first back-boned animals to take a stab at powered flight."

    The new species belonged to a group of pterosaurs known as anhanguerians, which inhabited every continent during the latter part of the Age of Dinosaurs.

    Being perfectly adapted to powered flight, pterosaurs had thin-walled and relatively hollow bones.

    Given these adaptations their fossilised remains are rare and often poorly preserved.

    "It's quite amazing fossils of these animals exist at all," Mr Richards said.

    "By world standards, the Australian pterosaur record is poor, but the discovery of Thapunngaka contributes greatly to our understanding of Australian pterosaur diversity."

    It is only the third species of anhanguerian pterosaur known from Australia, with all three species hailing from western Queensland.

    Dr Steve Salisbury, co-author on the paper and Mr Richard's PhD supervisor, said what was particularly striking about this new species of anhanguerian was the massive size of the bony crest on its lower jaw, which it presumably had on the upper jaw as well.

    "These crests probably played a role in the flight dynamics of these creatures, and hopefully future research will deliver more definitive answers," Dr Salisbury said.

    The fossil was found in a quarry just northwest of Richmond in June 2011 by Len Shaw, a local fossicker who has been 'scratching around' in the area for decades.

    The name of the new species honours the First Nations peoples of the Richmond area where the fossil was found, incorporating words from the now-extinct language of the Wanamara Nation.

    "The genus name, Thapunngaka, incorporates thapun [ta-boon] and ngaka [nga-ga], the Wanamara words for 'spear' and 'mouth', respectively," Dr. Salisbury said.

    "The species name, shawi, honours the fossil's discoverer Len Shaw, so the name means 'Shaw's spear mouth'."

    The fossil of Thapunngaka shawi is on display at Kronosaurus Korner in Richmond.


    Source

    © Copyright Original Source




    The full paper, A new species of crested pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea, Anhangueridae) from the Lower Cretaceous (upper Albian) of Richmond, North West Queensland, Australia can be read by clicking on the hyperlink, while the abstract can be seen below


    ABSTRACT

    Pterosaur fossils from Australia are exceptionally rare. Since the discovery of the continent’s first pterosaur some 40 years ago, fewer than 20 specimens have been described. The Lower Cretaceous (upper Albian) Toolebuc Formation of North West Queensland is the most productive horizon for Australian pterosaurs. Herein, we describe a new species of pterosaur, Thapunngaka shawi gen. et sp. nov., from the Toolebuc Formation, near Richmond, North West Queensland. The specimen (KKF494) comprises the rostral portion of a crested mandible and represents the largest pterosaur yet described from Australia. The new species presents features that indicate an affinity with Anhangueridae, which is consistent with their reported cosmopolitan distribution during this period. Thapunngaka shawi can be distinguished from other anhanguerids through the possession of a mandible with a smooth dorsal surface medially and uniquely sized alveoli that are positioned laterally along the jaw. Phylogenetic analysis reveals a close relationship among all Australian anhanguerids and points to an endemic Australian radiation within Anhangueridae. Thapunngaka shawi has the largest mandibular crest of any anhanguerian worldwide, and provides further evidence for the existence of an increasingly diverse range of large crested pterosaurs in the Australian part of eastern Gondwana during the Cretaceous.



    And of course some images.

    I'm always still in trouble again

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  • #2
    Originally posted by rogue06 View Post


    img.jpg[/CENTER]

    So all they found was the chin? How can they come up with an entire skull much less the body from just the chin?

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Sparko View Post


      So all they found was the chin? How can they come up with an entire skull much less the body from just the chin?
      By comparing it to other types of similar pterosaurs. Sort of like we can look at a human toe bone and estimate the height of the person that it came from.

      I'm always still in trouble again

      "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
      "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
      "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
        By comparing it to other types of similar pterosaurs. Sort of like we can look at a human toe bone and estimate the height of the person that it came from.
        so it's all a guess? Call me when they actually find more.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Sparko View Post

          so it's all a guess? Call me when they actually find more.
          In the same way that they could tell you how tall you are by measuring one of your toes.

          Now there are obviously things that this won't tell us, like for instance what color(s) it was. Or whether it had a ridge running along the top of its head like the one running on the underside (likely though), but when it comes to basic dimensions... scientists can determine that pretty accurately.

          I'm always still in trouble again

          "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
          "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
          "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Sparko View Post

            so it's all a guess? Call me when they actually find more.
            Through researching, comparing hundreds of thousands if not millions of fossils of different ancient animals and making predictions that have been confirmed by comparative anatomy we can reconstruct animals from even one or a few fossils.

            In forensic medicine we can often reconstruct a person's height, sex, and age based on one bone if we have the right bone.
            Last edited by shunyadragon; 08-20-2021, 10:48 AM.
            Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
            Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
            But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

            go with the flow the river knows . . .

            Frank

            I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by shunyadragon View Post

              Through researching, comparing hundreds of thousands if not millions of fossils of different ancient animals and making predictions that have been confirmed by comparative anatomy we can reconstruct animals from even one or a few fossils.

              In forensic medicine we can often reconstruct a person's height, sex, and age based on one bone if we have the right bone.


              It all depends on whether or not there is familiarity with the creature. If this was something new, like something from the pre or early Cambrian, then yes, take everything with a pretty big bag of salt. After all, it was only a couple decades ago that fossils of what they thought represented three entirely different types of creatures were discovered to actually be the parts of a single organism -- Anomalocaris. Similarly, until the 90s, due to a lack of decent fossils Hallucigenia was thought to have walked on what we know realize were spines on its back or was even an appendage of a larger creature.

              Anomalocaris




              Hallucigenia





              But it is, as you said, an entirely different thing when it comes to creatures we're pretty familiar with, and we know a great deal about pterosaurs in general including the Family that Thapunngaka belonged to, so this is hardly "all a guess" as Sparko declared

              I'm always still in trouble again

              "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
              "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
              "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

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