Dsungaripterus post-crania 2024

Song, Jiang and Wang 2024 bring us
updates to previously scarce data (Fig 2) on the post-crania of the dsungaripterid pterosaur, Dsungaripterus weii (Fig 1). These bones are also 3D, like the famous skull.

Otherwise, no surprises here. Still no prepubis found yet.

Figure 1. Dsungaripterus post-crania from Song, Jiang and Wang 2024 updated on frame 2 with colors for soft tissue and a proper orientation of the three free fingers palm down, as in all other tetrapods. ” data-image-caption=”

Figure 1. Dsungaripterus post-crania from Song, Jiang and Wang 2024 updated on frame 2 with colors for soft tissue and a proper orientation of the three free fingers palm down, as in all other tetrapods.

” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/dsungaripterus.postcrania588.gif?w=152″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/dsungaripterus.postcrania588.gif?w=517″ class=”size-full wp-image-90232″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/dsungaripterus.postcrania588.gif” alt=”Figure 1. Dsungaripterus post-crania from Song, Jiang and Wang 2024 updated on frame 2 with colors for soft tissue and a proper orientation of the three free fingers palm down, as in all other tetrapods. ” width=”584″ height=”1156″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/dsungaripterus.postcrania588.gif?w=584&h=1156 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/dsungaripterus.postcrania588.gif?w=76&h=150 76w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/dsungaripterus.postcrania588.gif?w=152&h=300 152w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/dsungaripterus.postcrania588.gif 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />

Figure 1. Dsungaripterus post-crania from Song, Jiang and Wang 2024 updated on frame 2 with colors for soft tissue and a proper orientation of the three free fingers palm down, as in all other tetrapods. Wing shape from Peters 2002, as in all other pterosaurs that preserved soft tissue. Dsungaripterus does not.

Only one disappointment.
The authors followed = borrowed Kellner 2003 in considering Dsungaripterus, with its sharp pointed snout, an ornithocheiroid, a clade with a rake-like toothy snout.

This is wrong.

Simply adding taxa
as in the large pterosaur tree (LPT, 263 taxa) and published in the Peters 2007 abstract, Dsungaripterus nests with similar sharp-snouted pterosaurs (Fig 2) like Tapejara, Shenzoupterus and the pteranodontids, Pteranodon and Nyctosaurus, all derived from pointed snout, but still toothy, B St 1878 VI 1 specimen assigned to Germanodactylus. Eopteranodon li is also part of this pointy-snouted, small-crested clade.

Note that Dsungaripterids retains teeth only in the posterior jaw, showing how this clade of pterosaurs lost marginal teeth in a step-by-step fashion.

Kellner’s cladogram suffered from cherry-picked taxa = taxon omission. No academic cladogram since then has added the necessary taxa seen in the LPT or Peters 2007. So there’s a curious lack of curiosity = wearing blinders in pterosaur workers.

Germanodactylus and the Dsungaripteridae ” data-image-caption=”

Germanodactylus and the Dsungaripteridae

” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/germanodactylus-dsungaripteridae588.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/germanodactylus-dsungaripteridae588.jpg?w=584″ class=”wp-image-1193 size-full” src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/germanodactylus-dsungaripteridae588.jpg” alt=”Germanodactylus and the Dsungaripteridae” width=”584″ height=”345″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/germanodactylus-dsungaripteridae588.jpg?w=584&h=345 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/germanodactylus-dsungaripteridae588.jpg?w=150&h=89 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/germanodactylus-dsungaripteridae588.jpg?w=300&h=177 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/germanodactylus-dsungaripteridae588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />

Figure 2. Germanodactylus and the Dsungaripteridae. This is what we knew of the post-crania back in 2010. Click to enlarge.

Song, Jiang and Wang reported,
“However, it is also noted that a positive allometric growth of the wing metacarpal relative to the ulna was detected in Pteranodon (Bennett, 2001b); if this is also true for Dsungaripterus, it will mean that the ratio of pteroid versus ulna is overestimated here.”

This is wrong. Pterosaur hatchlings had adult proportions – only 1/8 the size.

Dsungaripterus weii
(Young 1964) ~4 m wingspan, Early Cretaceous was derived from a sister to Noripterus. Together these dsungaripterids represent the last of their lineage. Distinct from Noripterus, the skull of Dsungaripterus was more robust with upturned jaw tips. Bone grew over the rear teeth during maturation. The suborbital region was further ossified. The mandible was more robust. The sternal complex was rectangular. Posteriorly two sternal ribs (or gastralia) were massive. The gastralia were few and robust. The wing was more gracile. The femur was more robust. The fibula was fused to the tibia. The family tree of the Ornithocephalia and Germanodactylia is here. The expanded family tree of the Pterosauria is here.

Worth mentioning again,
Sinopterus atavismus (Zhang et al. 2019; Early Cretaceous; IVPP V 23388, Fig 3) was originally considered a juvenile member of the Tapejaridae, but here nests as a small adult basal to Dsungaripteridae. The antorbital fenestra is not taller than the orbit. The carpals are no fused. No notarium is present. The antebrachium is robust. The distant pedal phalanges are longer than the proximal pedal phalanges.

Figure 2. Sinopterus atavismus reconstruction. ” data-image-caption=”

Figure 2. Sinopterus atavismus reconstruction.

” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/sinopterus_atavismus_recon588.jpg?w=185″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/sinopterus_atavismus_recon588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-50907″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/sinopterus_atavismus_recon588.jpg” alt=”Figure 2. Sinopterus atavismus reconstruction.” width=”584″ height=”948″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/sinopterus_atavismus_recon588.jpg?w=584&h=948 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/sinopterus_atavismus_recon588.jpg?w=92&h=150 92w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/sinopterus_atavismus_recon588.jpg?w=185&h=300 185w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/sinopterus_atavismus_recon588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />

Figure 3. Sinopterus atavismus reconstruction.

PS
Apparently not under the influence of North American and European pterosaur workers, this paper also includes a citation for Peters 2009. What a surprise! That 2009 paper was a reaction to the fad back then of academic pterosaur experts mistakenly pointing the pteroid anteriorly during flight. Glad that fad is over with.

References
Peters D 2002. A New Model for the Evolution of the Pterosaur Wing – with a twist. – Historical Biology 15: 277–301.
Peters D 2007. The origin and radiation of the Pterosauria. In D. Hone ed. Flugsaurier. The Wellnhofer pterosaur meeting, 2007, Munich, Germany. p. 27.
Peters D 2009. A reinterpretation of pteroid articulation in pterosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 29(4), 1327–1330. doi:10.1671/ 039.029.0407
Song J, Jiang S and Wang X 2024. Postcranial anatomy of Dsungaripterus weii (Pterosauria: Ornithocheiroidea) from the lower Cretaceous of Wuerho, China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2024.2402042
Young CC 1964. On a new pterosaurian from Sinkiang, China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 8: 221-256.
Zhang X, Jiang S, Cheng X and Wang X 2019. New material of Sinopterus (Pterosauria, Tapejaridae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota of China. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias 91(2):e20180756. DOI 10.1590/0001-3765201920180756.

wiki/Dsungaripterus
wiki/Sinopterus

The larger specimen of Sinopterus atavismus enters the LPT basal to dsungaripterids