A NEW LARGE PTEROSAUR FROM THE LATE CRETACEOUS OF PATAGONIA

NOVAS, F. E.; KUNDRAT, M.; AGNOLIN, F. L.; EZCURRA, M. D.; AHLBERG, P. E.; ISASI, M. P.; ARRIAGADA, A.; CHAFRAT, P.

JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

SOC VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY

Lugar: Lawrence; Año: 2012 vol. 32

0272-4634

South America has yielded abundant and diverse Early Cretaceouspterosaur remains, mainly from the highly productiveSantana Group (Aptian?Albian) in the Araripe Basin, northeasternBrazil (Kellner, 2001; Unwin and Martill, 2007). Severalpterosaur taxa have been reported from these beds, includingTapejara, Tupuxuara, and Anhanguera as the most outstandingexamples (Kellner, 2001). Another highly productive LowerCretaceous South American pterosaur-bearing unit is the LagarcitoFormation (Albian) of central Argentina that has yieldeda monospecific assemblage of the pterodactyloid Pterodaustroguinazui (Bonaparte, 1970; Chiappe et al., 1998; Codorni ´u andGasparini, 2007). The La Amarga Formation (Barremian?earlyAptian) in northwestern Patagonia has provided an isolatedpterosaur femur (Montanelli, 1987) and the R´ıo BelgranoFormation (Barremian) in southern Patagonia has yielded anulna and a probable partial wing metacarpal of a probableanhanguerid pteranodontoid (Kellner et al., 2003). In the LowerCretaceous of Chile, a partial jaw with teeth and a proximalwing phalanx were assigned to an indeterminate ctenochasmatid(Martill et al., 2006). In addition, some fragmentary pterosaurremains have been reported from the Lower Cretaceous ofVenezuela and Peru (Codorni ´u and Gasparini, 2007; Barrettet al., 2008). By contrast, the Late Cretaceous pterosaur bonerecord of South America is still scarce and restricted to a handfulof fragmentary specimens, including remains referred to the nyctosauridNyctosaurus lamegoi from the Maastrichtian of Brazil(Price, 1953; Lima and Koutsoukos, 2006) and azhdarchoid longbones, probably from a taxon closely related to or a memberof Azhdarchidae, from the Turonian?Coniacian PortezueloFormation (Calvo and Lockley, 2001; Kellner et al., 2004, 2006;Apestegu´ıa et al., 2007; Codorni ´u and Gasparini, 2007).