The Devil, Hairier

As an update to my previous post, Rendering Unto Nature What is Nature’s Due, I’ve taken the opportunity to create another careful skeletal diagram for the purposes of creating silhouettes for Mike Keesey’s Phylo Pic. I’ve already rendered one for Pterorhynchus wellnhoferi, which as it turned out is the 600th image submitted! This time, however, I decided to render my Sordes pilosus Sharov, 1971 (you know, the “hairy devil”), which proved a bit more challenging.

The Masthead – WP#17

Pterosaurs represent an unusual group of diverse archosauromorphan vertebrates, characterized by large skulls, light body plans, and extremely elongated arms. Among them, there were the small anurognathids who sported large, wide heads and very long wings; gar-toothed, slender-snouted “rhamphorhynchids” (a likely paraphyletic grade); long-necked, long-snouted, many-toothed ctenochasmatoids; the gigantic pteranodontids and azhdarchids, some sporting extremely large skulls for their size and the latter sporting extremely long necks; anhanguerids, with their keel-snouted jaws and tapejarids with their high, triangular(-ish) crests.

A Growing Paradigm

As if hurried by the process of discovery and the level of acheivement gained through the recovery and description of Darwinopterus (details summarized here),researchers have uncovered yet another long-tailed, large-skulled “intermediate” between the rhamphorhynchoid and pterodactyloid grades of pterosaur, Wukongopterus lii.

Wang X.-l., A. W. A. Kellner, Jiang S.-x. and Meng J. 2009. An unusual long-tailed pterosaur with elongated neck from western Liaoning of China. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências 81(4):793-812.

Some Thoughts on Darwinopterus

By now, the blogosphere has had it’s chance on Darwinopterus. PZ Myers had a shot over at Pharyngula summarizing it, Darren Naish at Tetrapod Zoology approached the ecological angle by exploring the potential for predation (also handled by Mark Witton’s illustration of the aerial predator it is envisioned to be), while Dave Hone at Archosaur Musing’s set up the pterosaur general story and Darwinopterus‘ impact on it. Eventually, the hubbub will die down, but for now, I wanted to say a piece or three.

Lü J.-c., Unwin, D. M., Jin X.-s., Liu Y.-q. and Ji Q. 2010. Evidence for modular evolution in a long-tailed pterosaur with a pterodactyloid skull. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 277(1680): 383-389.  (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1603)