#cimoliopterus

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Cimoliopterus by Mark Witton

#cimoliopterus #mark witton #paleoart #pterosaur

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Wednesday 2/6/21 - Your Pterosaurs Are Wrong

Mark Witton, Cimoliopterus

A few weeks ago, I made a post talking about dinosaurs, and some common mistakes that artists make when reconstructing them. A lot of these issues bleed into how dinosaurs look in mainstream media, so I wanted to show what scientists know is the right way to do a dinosaur.

But dinosaurs weren't the only reptiles alive at the time, and many other ancient reptile groups also feature heavily in pop culture... and they're done just as dirty. Today I wanna talk about a group closely related to dinosaurs, the Pterosaurs, and the various way they're misreconstructed.

Firstly: Pterosaurs aren't Dinosaurs

Most people with at least a passing interest in dinosaurs understand that dinosaurs were not the only group of reptiles widespread in the Mesozoic. But the other day, my sister was approaching me for information she could link to a cheap bag of "dinosaur" toys. Among Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops, there was also other reptiles like Pteranodon and Elasmosaurus, and I was shocked to find that the fact that not all of these were dinosaurs was not common knowledge.

A typical cheap assortment of plastic "Dinosaur" toys

I might tackle extinct marine reptiles in the future, but for now, the basics to know is that most dinosaurs were not strong swimmers; plesiosaurs, icthyosaurs, and mososaurs were not dinosaurs. And the only flying dinosaurs had feathered wings; birds and their close extinct relatives. Pterosaurs, which fly with stretched membrane wings, are not dinosaurs.

Pterosaurs are closely related to dinosaurs, both groups share the very light bone structure that allowed flight to develop in each group. Ornithodira (bird-neck), is the name of the group containing the oldest ancestors of dinosaurs and pterosaurs, and their descendants. But that's enough cladistics. Let's get to physical inaccuracies.

Bipedal vs Quadrupedal

The classic image of a man-shaped Pterosaur standing on its hind limbs like a vulture is very verrrry outdated. We now know that, like modern membrane-winged bats, pterosaurs walked on all fours on the ground. And they weren't clumsy either, some larger species may have hunted on the ground too.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Pteranodon (inaccurate)

Mark Witton, Thalassodromeus (accurate)

This quadrupedal stance helped pterosaurs take off with all four limbs, a much more powerful leap. Meaning that pterosaurs could reach greater sizes than any other flying animal in history. Another, minor quip, is that the fingers of the front limbs faced backwards when pterosaurs were grounded.

Wings were not pointed

Walking With Dinosaurs, Ornithocheirus (now inaccurate wings)

Julio Lacerda, Pteranodon (accurate wings)

When you draw a pterosaur it can be very easy to draw mishapen pointed triangles for the wings, but if you're going for a scientifically accurate depiction, the edges of a pterosaur wing were actually slightly rounded, and this helps reduce drag. Which is important in particular for gliding and soaring species.

Tails... were not Universal

The earliest ancestors of pterosaurs were likely a quadrupedal, possibly arboreal species, and would have definitely had a tail. But as pterosaurs diversified and got bigger, there was a trend toward a smaller tail.

Gabriel Ugueto, Articodactylus (a tailed Pterosaur)

Brian Engh, Nyctosaurus (a tailless Pterosaur)

The stereotypical long, arrow-headed tail was present in some species for sure, but the bigger crested species like Pterodactylus did not have tails.

Scaly Monsters?

Like many mainstream misrepresentation of dinosaurs, pterosaurs have long been shown off as serpent-like monsters with bare, scaled skin. I mentioned in the Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong post that even very primitive feathers are ancestral to all dinosaurs, and some palaeontologists think that this ancestral trait might extend to all of Ornithodira.

Most, if not all Pterosaurs, possessed hair-like filaments called Pycnofibers. In dinosaurs, this fuzz gave rise to feathers, but in pterosaurs, they developed into fluff that was superficially analogous to mammal fur. So rather than shrink wrapped scaly monsters, more accurate pterosaurs would've appeared fairly furry. But like dinosaurs, this would vary between genera.

Walking With Dinosaurs, Anurognathus (now inaccurate)

Andrey Atuchin, Anurognathus (accurate)

Thanks For Reading

These things I've mentioned today are the main glaring inaccuracies that pop up in PaleoMedia and mainstream SciFi in general. There's a couple other smaller things that I wouldve brought up, but tumblr only allows 10 images in one post.

The clade Pterosauria is also very varied, so smaller gripes, such as toothless jaws or wings without external fingers, may be inaccurate in some groups, but they are perfectly accurate in others (the toothless Quetzalocoatlus, and fingerless Nyctosaurus for example).

Cheers for the read, and if you want me to tackle other groups of ancient animals and their misrepresentation in media, let us know.

Also check out Dr Mark Witton on his twitter, and his blogspot. He is very skilled paleoartist, and I use a lot of his art in general, but he's also a palaeontologist who is very knowledgeable in Pterosaurs.

#blog #blogpost #paleoart #palaeontology #dinosaurs #pterosaurs #ornithodira

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Aetodactylus

Aetodactylus

Aetodactylus (meaning "eagle finger") is a genus of ornithocheirid pterodactyloid pterosaur. It is known from a lower jaw discovered in Upper Cretaceous rocks of northeastern Texas, United States. Description Aetodactylus is based on SMU 76383 (Shuler Museum of Paleontology, Southern Methodist University), a nearly complete lower jaw lacking the right retroarticular process (the bony prong posterior to the jaw joint), part of the posterior end of the mandibular symphysis (where the two halves of the lower jaw meet), and all but two teeth. This specimen was found in 2006 by Lance Hall near a construction site in Mansfield, near Joe Pool Lake (recorded as SMU Loc. 424). The rock it was found in is a calcareous marine sandstone rich in mud–sized particles, from the middle Cenomanian-age (approximately 97 million years old) Tarrant Formation. Also found were fish teeth and vertebrae, and indeterminate bones. The Tarrant Formation is the lowest rock unit of the Cenomanian–Turonian–age Eagle Ford Group. Aetodactylus was named by Timothy S. Myers of SMU in 2010. The type species is A. halli, named in honor of the discoverer. Aetodactylus is differentiated from other ornithocheirids by several anatomical details of the lower jaw, including the slight expansion of the anterior end of the lower jaw, the strong vertical compression of the symphysis, the relatively constant spacing of the teeth, and the slight upward curve of the lower jaw. Myers found that Aetodactylus compared best with the Chinese genus Boreopterus. Aetodactylus represents one of the youngest definitive records of ornithocheirids. The jaw SMU 76383 is 38.4 centimetres (15.1 in) long, 15.8 centimetres (6.2 in) (~41%) of which is joined left and right jaws. 27 pairs of teeth were present; the two remaining teeth are pointed, curved slightly backward, flattened from side to side, and slender. The tip of the jaw is slightly expanded (to 1.6 centimetres (0.63 in) from a minimum of 1.3 centimetres (0.51 in) just posterior) and contains the first four pairs of teeth, with the first pair projecting forward. Based on the size of the tooth sockets, the teeth of the second and third pairs were largest, with tooth size decreasing posteriorly. There are small pits between the posterior teeth, interpreted as points where the teeth of the upper jaw rested against the lower jaw. These pits disappear partway along the tooth row, suggesting that the anterior teeth of the upper jaws were longer and projected outwards to a degree. Unlike some other ornithocheirids, such as Anhanguera, Coloborhynchus, and Ornithocheirus, there is no bony crest on the lower jaw. Aetodactylus was considered a possible relative of Boreopterus in the original description, but subsequent cladistic analysis found it to be closely related to Cimoliopterus instead. source - Wikipedia Dear friends, if you liked our post, please do not forget to share and comment like this. If you want to share your information with us, please send us your post with your name and photo at [email protected]. We will publish your post with your name and photo. thanks for joining us www.rbbox.in

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