<h1>Canada discovered a new species of pterosaur, comparable in size to a small aircraft</h1>
Pterodactyls were flying giants that dominated the sky during the age of the dinosaurs, especially in the late Cretaceous period, growing in size but in fewer and fewer species. Canadian paleontologists recently named a new pterosaur with a wingspan of up to 10 meters!
<h1>From the cold land</h1>
North America has a rich resource of paleontological fossils, and a large number of fossils have been found in the United States and Canada. Compared to dinosaur fossils, Pterosaur fossils in North America are significantly fewer, especially in Canada. It wasn't until 1972 that paleontologists found some scattered fossils belonging to the Azhdarchidae family in Alberta, Canada, the first fossil of a pterosaur in Canada!
Image note: Albert Province where fossils were found, picture from the internet
At first paleontologists classified the fossils as undetermined species of Quetzalcoatlus sp., but Michael Habib, a paleontologist at the University of Southern California, believes that the fossils represent a completely new species of pterosaurs.
Illustration: Habib, who studied fossils, image from the internet
Photo note: Paleontologists are discovering fossils, images from the web
In 1992, paleontologists found a pterosaur fossil (No. TMP 1992.83) in the Dinosaur Park Formation formation in Canada, which included a part of the skeleton behind the skull, which represented a juvenile individual. Since then, paleontologists have found more fossils of pterosaurs, but these fossils are fragmented and scattered.
Pterosaur fossil found in Alberta, image from the paper
Over the past 15 years, paleontologists have found many fossils of the family Pterosaurus in France, Hungary, Romania, Morocco and elsewhere, which have provided rich materials for studying the diversity of the Pterosaurus family. At the same time, paleontologists have the opportunity to observe the skeletal characteristics of kamikaze pterosaurs up close and measure fossils to gain a more complete picture of the animal.
Habib examined the fossils discovered in 1992 during a visit to the Royal Tyler Paleontology Museum in Canada, which, judging by the state of preservation of the fossils, was covered with bite marks from teeth and even embedded in them. Judging from the appearance of its teeth, this pterosaur was swallowed by scavengers after death, and the body of the pterosaur should have been a small chicosaurus dinosaur.
Picture note: Chilong is devouring the carcass of a pterosaur, image from the Internet
<h1>New species to hunks</h1>
In comparing the found part of the vertebrae with Aeolian pterosaur, paleontologists determined that its anatomical features were quite different, representing two different species. Based on the 1992 pterosaur fossil, paleontologists speculate that it has a wingspan of 5 meters, but another fossil preserved in the museum (number: TMP 1980.16.1367) represents a larger individual. Due to incomplete preservation, the fossil was originally thought to belong to a leg bone, but the study found that it belonged to the fifth cervical vertebrae of the pterosaur, which was about 0.5 meters long. According to this fossil, the wingspan of the individual pterosaurs to which it belongs reached 10.5 meters!
Photo note: Mistaken for a fossil femur, image from the paper
Illustration: Restoration of pterosaurs with a wingspan of 10 meters, picture from the Internet
In September 2019, paleontologists published an article in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology titled "Cryodrakon boreas, gen. et sp. nov., a late Cretaceous Canadian azhdarchid pterosaur) paper, officially named the cold pterosaur.
The genus name Cryodrakon comes from the Greek words "Cry" (meaning "cold") and "drakon" (meaning "dragon"), meaning "cold dragon", representing the fossil found in cold Canada. The model species name of the cold wing dragon is the north wind cold pterosaur, and the model species name "boreas" means "north", which also has the meaning of cold, but Canada during the Cretaceous period was much warmer and wetter than it is today. Interestingly, Habib, the name of the Cold Pterodactyl, once wanted to name his species Cryodrakon viserion, a dragon from the American drama A Song of Ice and Fire, and he himself is a fan of the American drama.
Photo note: Viseryion in "A Song of Ice and Fire" in which the Night King turns into an ice dragon, the image comes from the Internet
<h1>Fly over Cretaceous North America</h1>
The Dinosaur Park Formation where Camoptera was found belonged to the Late Cretaceous, dating from 76.7 million to 74.3 million years ago. Because fossils of Dipterosaurus were found on the lower edge of the formation, they are dated about 76 million years ago.
Dinosaur Park Formation formation is very famous Cretaceous strata, the dinosaurs found in this formation include tyrannosaurs belonging to the Tyrannosaurus rex, snake-haired female monster dragons, lizard birds and birds, chilongosaurs, west claws, lurking female hunters, belonging to the oviraptorosaurs, slender-handed dragons, near-jawed dragons, belonging to the bird-like dragons, ostriches, swollen-headed dragons, slender-horned dragons, heavy-headed dragons, protospermosaurs, para-ctenophores, Lai's dragons, griffins, and horned horned dragons belonging to the horned dragons, sharp-horned dragons, and halopters. Edmonton ankylosaurs, ankylosaurs, and so on belong to the ankylosaur class.
Illustration: Ecological niche restoration of the dinosaurs in the Dinosaur Park Group, the Raisaurus and ctenophora that feeds on tall branches and leaves, the openhorn and the dipterosaur that feeds on low plants, the Baotou dragon and the dragon that feeds on plants on the ground, by Julius Stoney
The numerous dinosaurs found in the Dinosaur Park group represent a vibrant prehistoric world, with dinosaurs ruling the earth and cold pterosaurs ruling the sky. Wingspans of more than 10 meters had a pointed head and slender neck, and their membrane-attached wings were able to reach the sky with the help of air currents. Diplodocus may have fed mainly on fish, but also ate animals, including small dinosaurs, which stood at a height of up to 4 meters when standing on the ground!
Image note: Cold pterosaurs fly above the world of dinosaurs, the picture comes from the internet
Image note: Cold Pterodactyl restoration, picture from the network
As the first pterosaur currently found in Canada, The Cold Pterodactyl enriched the discovery of Pterosaurus in the Late Cretaceous North America, an air giant comparable to a small airplane that shared the best time of the Cretaceous with dinosaurs.
Resources:
1.Hone, D.; Habib, M.; Therrien, F. (September 2019). "Cryodrakon boreas, gen. et sp. nov., a Late Cretaceous Canadian azhdarchid pterosaur". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. doi:10.1080/02724634.2019.1649681.
2.Greshk, Michael (10 September 2019). "New 'frozen dragon' pterosaur found hiding in plain sight - The flying reptile was mostly head and neck—and had at least a 16-foot wingspan, if not bigger". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
3. Malewar, Amit (10 September 2019). "New reptile species was one of largest ever flying animals - It is different from other azhdarchids and so it gets a name". TechExplorist.com. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
Image / Network (Intrusion and Deletion)
Text / Paleontological Exploration (Jiang Hong)
Typography / Paleontological exploration