Groundbreaking Discovery: Fossil of Ancient Pterosaur ‘Skiphosoura bavarica’ Sheds Light on Evolution of Flying Reptiles

Flying over the Bavarian landscape 147 million years ago, a pterosaur – with a wingspan of around two meters, a bony crest in front of its nose and a mouth full of sharp teeth – was looking for a berry or other tasty snack to eat. .

Scientists have found a fossil skeleton of a well-preserved species pterosaur (ancient flying reptile) recently mentioned and mentioned Skiphosoura bavaricain a discovery that fills a big gap in understanding the evolution of pterosaurs – important creatures in ecosystems during the age of dinosaurs.

oh Skiphosaura it lived at the end of the Jurassic period. It is anatomically transitional between the relatively small, long-tailed pterosaurs of about 80 million years earlier during the Triassic period and the short-tailed ones that would later become the giants of the Cretaceous period , such as o Quetzalcoatluswhich had the wingspan of an F-16 fighter.

“It’s very important,” said paleontologist David Hone, from Queen Mary University of London and lead author of the study published Monday in magazine Current Biologyabout how Skiphosaura Download a presentation on the development of pterosaurs.

“It also sheds light on the discoveries of other pterosaurs that we had already made, better defines their position in the pterosaur family tree and allows us to move this from early to late forms to emerge – and see which features were changing and in what order,” he explains. David Hond.

The creature, whose scientific name means “the tail of the Bavarian sword”, the tail was short, sharp and pointed. Almost all the bones of the skeleton are preserved in three dimensions, instead of being crushed as is the case in many fossils It was discovered in 2015 in the state of Bavaria, in the south-east of Germany. each other or crushed when preserved,” says David Hone.

oh Skiphosaura it would have been one of the biggest labels in its ecosystem. Its skull was about 25 centimeters long. “The bony crest is limited to the front of the nose, but there would be an extension of soft tissue above it that would make it a little bigger. It may have been bright in color or patterned, but we don’t know for sure”, says David Hone.

“The teeth are very long and sharp. They are used for piercing and holding,” said the paleontologist. “It would have been a widespread predator of small prey, taking lizards, small mammals, large insects and possibly fish. He probably lived on land, maybe in forests.”

Os pterosaurscousins ​​of the dinosaurs, the first of the three groups of vertebrates to be able to fly, followed by birds, around 150 million years ago, and bats, around 50 million years ago. Pterosaurs were wiped out 66 million years ago, in an extinction event that also affected the dinosaurs, after an asteroid hit the Earth.

Paleontologists divide pterosaurs into two large groups – the former were non-pterodactyls and the latter were pterodactyls. Members of the early group had a short head, a short neck, a long tail, a short wrist bone, and a long fifth toe. The latter had a large head, long neck, short tail, long wrists and a short fifth toe. Later large pterosaurs were also toothless.

The discovery Skiphosaura and another species called A winged lizardwho lived around 170 million years ago in Scotland, help to illuminate crucial events in the evolution of pterosaurs. Both belong to a so-called movement group“darwinopteros“which bridges the gap between early and late pterosaurs.

“oh Skiphosaura It is located in the family tree among pterosaurs darwinopteros and the pterodactyloid descendants”, explains the paleontologist and also co-author of the study Adam Fitch, from the Field Museum in Chicago, United States.

“For more than 150 million years, pterosaurs created and held countless ecological roles that were later filled by living birds and their closest relatives. – from hunting sea prey to hunting land prey on foot”, views Adam Fitch.