Anhanguera piscator

Anhanguera piscator
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 112Ma
↓
Restored skull
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Pterosauria
Family: †Anhangueridae
Genus: †Anhanguera
Species: † A. piscator
Binomial name
Anhanguera piscator
Campos & Kellner, 1985
Synonyms

Anhanguera piscator (meaning "fishing old devil") is a species of pterosaur known from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian age, 112Ma) Santana Formation of Brazil. This pterosaur is closely related to Ornithocheirus, and belongs in the family Ornithocheiridae within its own subfamily, Anhanguerinae.[1] A. piscator has also been classified in the genus Coloborhynchus as Coloborhynchus piscator or as a synonym of Coloborhynchus robustus.[2]

Description

Restoration

Anhanguera piscator was a fish-eating animal with a wingspan of about 4.5 m (15 ft). Like many other ornithocheirids, A. piscator had a rounded crests at front of its upper and lower jaws, which were filled with angled, conical but curved teeth of various sizes and orientations. Like many of its relatives, the jaws were tapered in width, but expanded into a broad, spoon-shaped rosette at the tip. It is distinguished from its relatives by subtle differences in the crest and teeth: unlike its close relatives Coloborhynchus and Ornithocheirus, the crest on the upper jaw of Anhanguera piscator did not begin at the tip of the snout, but was set farther back on the skull, and the expanded jaw tips were slender and spoon-shaped rather than robust and box-shaped as in Coloborhynchus. Like many ornithocheiroids, (most notably the pteranodonts but also in ornithocheirids such as Ludodactylus) Anhanguera piscator had an additional crest protruding from the back of the skull. However, it was reduced to a small, blunt projection in these animals.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Campos, D. de A., and Kellner, A. W. (1985). "Un novo exemplar de Anhanguera blittersdorffi (Reptilia, Pterosauria) da formaçao Santana, Cretaceo Inferior do Nordeste do Brasil." In Congresso Brasileiro de Paleontologia, Rio de Janeiro, Resumos, p. 13.
  2. ↑ Veldmeijer, A.J. (2003). "Description of Coloborhynchus spielbergi sp. nov. (Pterodactyloidea) from the Albian (Lower Cretaceous) of Brazil." Scripta Geologica, 125: 35-139.
  3. ↑ Kellner, A.W.A. and Tomida, Y. (2000). "Description of a new species of Anhangueridae (Pterodactyloidea) with comments on the pterosaurfauna from the Santana Formation (Aptian–Albian), northeastern Brazil." Tokyo, National Science Museum (National Science Museum Monographs, 17).