Anza palaeoichnological site. Late Cretaceous. Morocco. Part I. The first African pterosaur trackway (manus only)

Masrour, Moussa; Pascual-Arribas, Carlos; Ducla, Marc de; Hernández-Medrano, Nieves; Pérez‐Lorente, Félix

doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2017.07.004

Cited by 19 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The randomly oriented tracks of pterosaurs have commonly been explained as the feeding and semi-oating behavior in shallow water 25 . When the trackmaker pterosaur was buoyant on the water surface, their forelimbs could touch the sediments without the pes imprints, while eating 31,32 . However, the swimming or oating behavior of pterosaurs is not fully understood.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Aged Small Pterosaur Track Assemblage from the Upper Cretaceous of Korea

Jung

Huh

Hwang

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The pterosaur is the earliest and largest powered flying vertebrate, even earlier and larger than the other extant archosaurian group, birds. However, evidence for this flying reptile, including the diversity of the small-sized pterosaur after the mid-Cretaceous, and their ecology, has remained elusive. Here we present numerous and dense pterosaur track assemblages from the Hwasun Seoyuri tracksite in the Upper Cretaceous Jangdong Formation of the Neungju Basin in Korea. The pterosaur track assemblage, assigned to Pteraichnus isp., consists of various sized, randomly oriented manus-dominated tracks with several pes claw marks. These features commonly indicate the semi-aquatic behavior and multi-age gregariousness of pterosaurs. The supposed trackmaker of pterosaur tracks would be the small-sized pterodactyloid that inhibited the Late Cretaceous Korean Peninsula, but that has not previously been reported. This ichnological evidence for the global distribution of small-sized pterosaurs could be interpreted to mean that the pterosaur fauna in the Late Cretaceous was more distributed and diverse than was previously known.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Aged Small Pterosaur Track Assemblage from the Upper Cretaceous of Korea

Jung

Huh

Hwang

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…Pteraichnus, Lower or Later Cretaceous, Neuquén State, Argentina (Calvo & Lockley, 2001); (R) Pteraichnus-like, Maastrichtian, Upper Cretaceous, Utah, America (Lockley, 1999); (S) Pteraichnus isp., Lower Tithonian, Upper Jurassic, Crayssac tracksite, France (Mazin et al, 2003); (T) Pteraichnus isp., Early Kimmeridgian, Upper Jurassic, Wierzbica, Poland (Pie nkowski & Niedźwiedzki, 2005); (U) cf.Pteraichnus; Upper Jurassic, Utah, America(Mickelson et al, 2004); (V) Pteraichnus isp., Lower Cantwell Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Alaska, America(Fiorillo et al, 2009); (W) Pteraichnus isp., Lower Cantwell Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Alaska, America(Fiorillo et al, 2015); (X) cf. Pteraichnus, Maastrichtian, Upper Cretaceous, Agadir, Morocco(Masrour et al, 2017); (Y) Pteraichnus isp., Aptian-Albian, Lower Cretaceous, southern coast of Korea(Kim et al, 2006); (Z) Pteraichnus isp., Lower Cretaceous, Ulsan, Korea(Ha et al, 2018); (Z1) Pteraichnus isp., Lower Cretaceous, Huangyangquan tracksite, Wuerho, Xinjiang, China(He et al, 2013); (Z2) Pteraichnus isp., Lower Cretaceous, Wuerho, Xinjiang, China(Xing et al, 2013a); (Z3) Pteraichnus isp., Lower Cretaceous, Chongqing, China(Xing et al, 2013c); (Z4) Pteraichnus isp., Lower Cretaceous, Jimo city, Shandong…”

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confidence: 99%

A new pterosaur tracksite from the Lower Cretaceous of Wuerho, Junggar Basin, China: inferring the first putative pterosaur trackmaker

Wang

Jiang

2021

PeerJ

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We report the discovery of 114 small pterosaur footprints preserved in a greyish-green fine sandstone slab comprising 57 manus imprints and 57 pes imprints. Due to the chaotic distribution of footprints, the trackways are difficult to recognize. The pes imprints are sub-triangular and enlongate, the metatarsal part is roughly subequal to the digital part. The manus imprints are asymmetrical, longer than wide, and the lengths of digits I–III gradually increase. According to the diagnostic features of the Wuerho small pterosaur tracks, the present set was classified as Pteraichnus and is different from the nine reported valid ichnospecies of Pteraichnus. We therefore propose a new ichnospecies, Pteraichnus wuerhoensis isp. nov. The description is based on the anatomical characteristics (lengths of digits I–IV, length of digital part, length of metatarsal part) extracted from the pes imprints and comparisons with the pes bone fossils of Noripterus complicidens. We infer that the footprints were probably left by N. complicidens and the total width of the wings was presumably 2–2.3 m. In addition, the high density (365 per square meter) and varied sizes of the Wuerho small pterosaur tracks suggest that many pterosaurs of different ages lived in Huangyangquan Reservoir tracksite 1 area. Thus the trackmakers may have had gregarious behavior.

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The pterosaurs of the Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of Morocco

Smith

Ibrahim

Longrich

et al. 2023

PalZ

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The pterosaur assemblage of the mid-Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of Morocco is reviewed. This analysis examines their taxonomy, palaeoecology and palaeobiology with comments on taphonomy. New material permits the rediagnosis of the azhdarchoids Alanqa saharica and Afrotapejara zouhrii. Several specimens are reported that do not fit within the paradigms of previously named taxa. They represent three distinct jaw morphotypes, but are not assigned to new taxa here. The assemblage is highly diverse, including four tooth-bearing taxa assigned to Ornithocheiridae and five named taxa and three additional morphotypes assigned to Azhdarchoidea. The Kem Kem Group assemblage is the most diverse for any pterosaur-bearing fluvial deposit and one of the most diverse of any pterosaur assemblage. The assemblage is heavily biased in terms of preservation with an as yet unexplained high abundance of jaw fragments. We highlight the importance of fragmentary material in pterosaur studies.

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Anza palaeoichnological site. Late Cretaceous. Morocco. Part I. The first African pterosaur trackway (manus only)

Cited by 19 publications

References 23 publications

Multi-Aged Small Pterosaur Track Assemblage from the Upper Cretaceous of Korea

Multi-Aged Small Pterosaur Track Assemblage from the Upper Cretaceous of Korea

A new pterosaur tracksite from the Lower Cretaceous of Wuerho, Junggar Basin, China: inferring the first putative pterosaur trackmaker

The pterosaurs of the Cretaceous Kem Kem Group of Morocco

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