A NEW LARGE PTEROSAUR FROM THE LATE CRETACEOUS OF PATAGONIA

NOVAS, FERNANDO E.; KUNDRAT, MARTIN; AGNOLIN, FEDERICO L.; OTROS

JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

SOC VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

Lugar: Lawrence; Año: 2012

0272-4634

Here, we expand the meager record of Late Cretaceous SouthAmerican pterosaurs with the description of a partial rostrum belongingto a large azhdarchid pterodactyloid. The specimen wascollected close to the Bajo de Arriagada locality, correspondingto the uppermost Cretaceous Allen Formation of Argentina,around 80 km northwest of the well-sampled Bajo de Santa Rosalocality (Martinelli and Forasiepi, 2004) (Fig. 1). The Azhdarchidaewere the most abundant pterosaurs during latest Cretaceoustimes (Company et al., 1999; Butler et al., 2009). This clade comprisesseveral species of long-necked pterosaurs ranging from 2.5to 10 m in wing span, thus including the largest known flying vertebrates,such as the gigantic Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx(Kellner and Langston, 1996; Buffetaut et al., 2002; Witton andNaish, 2008; Witton and Habib, 2010).