Avgodectes

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Avgodectes
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Order: Pterosauria
Genus: Avgodectes
Peters, 2004
Species
  • A. pseudembryon Peters, 2004 (type)

Avgodectes is a controversial pterosaur genus. The full binomial is Avgodectes pseudembryon, which translates to "false-embryo egg-biter". Named by David Peters in 2004 and based on a pterosaur found within an egg.[1] While the scientists who initially described the fossil, Wang and Zhou, interpreted it as an unhatched embryo of an ornithocheirid pterosaur,[1] Peters interpreted the find as a tiny, adult anurognathid.[2] The specimen comes from the Early Cretaceous of China.[1]

Peters gave the species its name because the skeleton was the same size as most adult anurognathids. He hypothesized that the supposed embryo could have been an adult anurognathid fossilized while eating the contents of a dinosaur egg, large enough to contain it. This interpretation was not accepted by other pterosaur researchers; Chris Bennett, for example, pointed to evidence also noted by the original authors that the ends of long bones in the fossil were not completely ossified (turned to solid bone rather than cartilage) and had not yet developed a complex structure, which indicates the specimen was immature when it died. Bennett agreed with the original authors that the best interpretation of an immature pterosaur (more immature than any previously known) found inside an egg is that the specimen represents an embryo.[3] Peters himself acknowledged his misinterpretation when other pterosaur eggs were described in 2005.[4] This second Chinese egg[5] is that of an undisputed ornithocheirid and it differs from the Avgodectes material.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Wang, X.; Zhou, Z. (2004). "Pterosaur embryo from the Early Cretaceous". Nature 429: 623. doi:10.1038/429621a. 
  2. ^ Peters, David (2004). "Did pterosaurs lay eggs?". Prehistoric Times 67: 21. 
  3. ^ Bennett, S. Christopher (2005). "Pterosaur Science or Pterosaur Fantasy" (pdf). Prehistoric Times 70: 21–23, 40. 
  4. ^ Peters, David (2005). "Pterosaur Ptrouble.". Prehistoric Times 72: 44–47). 
  5. ^ Ji, Q (2004). "Pterosaur egg with a leathery shell". Nature 432: 572. doi:10.1038/432572a.