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Kryptodrakon progenitor
Topic Started: Apr 25 2014, 02:56 PM (2,038 Views)
Taipan
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Kryptodrakon progenitor

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Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 162.7Ma

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Pterosauria
Clade: †Caelidracones
Suborder: †Pterodactyloidea
Genus: †Kryptodrakon
Type species:Kryptodrakon progenitor

Kryptodrakon is an extinct genus of pterodactyloid pterosaur found in Middle–Late Jurassic boundary fossils of China, with an age of approximately 162.7 million years. It is known from a single type species, Kryptodrakon progenitor. As of its classification in 2014, Kryptodrakon was the basalmost and oldest pterodactyloid known.

Description
Kryptodrakon has an estimated wingspan of 1.47 metres (4.8 ft). Its fourth metacarpal is relatively slender and elongated, a strong indication it is a pterodactyloid bone. Cladistic analysis suggests that Kryptodrakon is the sister species of all other known Pterodactyloidea and thus the basalmost pterodactyloid known, if Pterodactyloidea was defined sensu Padian 2004 as containing those species possessing a metacarpal with at least 80% of the length of the humerus, homologous to Pterodactylus. The species is about five million years older than the oldest pterodactyloids previously discovered. A supposedly older pteordactyloid, a partial jaw referred to the group Ctenochasmatidae, had been described from the Middle Jurassic of the UK. However, this specimen probably represents a teleosaurid stem-crocodilian instead of a pterosaur.

Kryptodrakon lived in a terrestrial or in-land habitat, far from the coast. Andres et al (2014) saw this as an indication that the Pterodactyloidea had a terrestrial origin. The relatively short wings of Kryptodrakon is compatible with this theory, as long-winged species of modern birds and pterosaurs tend to live at the coast and short-winged species tend to inhabit forests.

Discovery and classification
In 2001, pterosaur bones were discovered in Xinjiang. The bones were first identified as those of a theropod; palaeontologist James Clark later recognized their pterosaurian nature.

In 2014, Brian Andres, Clark and Xu Xing named and described the type species Kryptodrakon progenitor. The generic name means hidden dragon from Greek κρυπτός, kryptos (hidden), and δράκων, drakon (dragon). The name alludes to the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The specific name progenitor means ancestor or founder of a family in Latin, and refers to the animal's status as the most basal member of the Pterodactyloidea.

The holotype, IVPP V18184, was uncovered in a layer of the Shishugou Formation dating from the Callovian–Oxfordian and having a minimum age of 161 million years. It consists of a partial skeleton lacking the skull. It contains fragments of both wings including the right fourth metacarpal, parts of the shoulder girdle and the second sacral vertebra. The bones were not articulated but were discovered in a small area of thirty square centimetres, at a considerable distance from other fossil remains, and thus likely represent a single individual. The bones were largely preserved three-dimensionally, without strong compression.

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A diagram shows the fragmentary remains of Kryptodrakon progenitor found in the famed "dinosaur death pits" area of the Shishugou Formation in northwest China. The skeletal outline is Pterodactylus antiquus reprinted with permission from Peter Wellnhofer. Scale bar is 50 mm.


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Oldest pterodactyloid species discovered: Primitive flying reptile took wing 163 million years ago

Date: April 24, 2014
Source: George Washington University
Summary:
Scientists have discovered and named the earliest and most primitive pterodactyloid -- a group of flying reptiles that would go on to become the largest known flying creatures to have ever existed -- and established they flew above Earth some 163 million years ago, longer than previously known.

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The preserved bones of Kryptodrakon progenitor (shown here in different views) has yielded new discoveries on the origin of the pterodactyloids, a group of flying reptiles that would go on to become the largest known flying creatures to have ever existed.

An international research team, including a George Washington University (GW) professor, has discovered and named the earliest and most primitive pterodactyloid -- a group of flying reptiles that would go on to become the largest known flying creatures to have ever existed -- and established they flew above Earth some 163 million years ago, longer than previously known.
Working from a fossil discovered in northwest China, the project -- led by University of South Florida (USF) paleontologist Brian Andres, James Clark of the GW Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and Xu Xing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences -- named the new pterosaur species Kryptodrakon progenitor.
Through scientific analysis the team established it as the first pterosaur to bear the characteristics of the Pterodactyloidea, which would become the dominant winged creatures of the prehistoric world. Their research will be published online Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
"This finding represents the earliest and most primitive pterodactyloid pterosaur, a flying reptile in a highly specialized group that includes the largest flying organisms," says Chris Liu, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences. "The research has extended the fossil record of pterodactyloids by at least five million years to the Middle-Upper Jurassic boundary about 163 million years ago."
Kryptodrakon progenitor lived around the time of the Middle-Upper Jurassic boundary. Through studying the fossil fragments, researchers also determined that the pterodactyloids originated, lived, and evolved in terrestrial environments -- rather than marine environments where other specimens have been found.
The fossil is of a small pterodactyloid with a wingspan estimate of about 4.5 feet. Pterodactyloids -- who went on to evolve into giant creatures, some as big as small planes -- went extinct with the dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago. Pterosaurs are considered close relatives to the dinosaurs, but are not dinosaurs themselves.
The discovery provides new information on the evolution of pterodactyloids, Dr. Andres said. This area was likely a flood plain at the time the pterosaur lived, Dr. Andres said. As the pterosaurs evolved, their wings changed from being narrow, which are more useful for marine environments, to being more broad near the origin of the pterodactyloids -- helpful in navigating land environments.
"He (Kryptodrakon progenitor) fills in a very important gap in the history of pterosaurs," Dr. Andres said. "With him, they could walk and fly in whole new ways."
The fossil that became the centerpiece of the research was discovered in 2001 by Chris Sloan, formerly of National Geographic and now president of Science Visualization. It was found in a mudstone of the Shishugou Formation of northwest China on an expedition led by Drs. Xu and Clark when Dr. Andres was a graduate student with Dr. Clark at GW. The desolate and harsh environment has become known to scientists worldwide as having "dinosaur death pits" for the quicksand in the area that trapped an extraordinary range of prehistoric creatures, stacking them on top of each other, including one of the oldest tyrannosaurs, Guanlong. Kryptodrakon progenitor was found 35 meters below an ash bed that has been dated back to more than 161 million years.
The specimen is housed at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Beijing, China. The name Kryptodrakon progenitor comes from Krypto (hidden) and drakon (serpent), referring to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" filmed near where the species was discovered, and progenitor (ancestral or first-born), referring to its status as the earliest pterodactyloid, Dr. Andres said.
"Kryptodrakon is the second pterosaur species we've discovered in the Shishugou Formation and deepens our understanding of this unusually diverse Jurassic ecosystem," said Dr. Clark, GW's Ronald B. Weintraub Professor of Biology. "It is rare for small, delicate fossils to be preserved in Jurassic terrestrial deposits, and the Shishugou fauna is giving us a glimpse of what was living alongside the behemoths like Mamenchisaurus."
The scientists write that the pterosaurs were a diverse group of Mesozoic flying reptiles that underwent a body plan reorganization, adaptive radiation, and replacement of earlier forms midway through their long history, resulting in the origin of the Pterodactyloidea, a highly-specialized group of pterosaurs of which Kryptodrakon is the earliest and most primitive species.
This new take on the ecological history of pterosaurs is supported by a significant correlation found between wing shape and environment in pterosaurs and modern flying vertebrates, like bats and birds, the researchers said. Pterosaurs, however, are not the ancestors of birds -- those are the dinosaurs -- and scientists still believe that pterosaurs did not evolve into birds or other modern animals humans would know.
The fieldwork was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences of the USA, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Geographic Society, the Jurassic Foundation, the Hilmar Sallee bequest, and the George Washington University. Study of the specimen was supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140424124652.htm




Journal Reference:
Brian Andres, James Clark, Xing Xu. The Earliest Pterodactyloid and the Origin of the Group. Current Biology, 2014; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.03.030

Abstract
The pterosaurs were a diverse group of Mesozoic flying reptiles that underwent a body plan reorganization, adaptive radiation, and replacement of earlier forms midway through their long history, resulting in the origin of the Pterodactyloidea, a highly specialized clade containing the largest flying organisms. The sudden appearance and large suite of morphological features of this group were suggested to be the result of it originating in terrestrial environments, where the pterosaur fossil record has traditionally been poor [ 1, 2 ], and its many features suggested to be adaptations to those environments [ 1, 2 ]. However, little evidence has been available to test this hypothesis, and it has not been supported by previous phylogenies or early pterodactyloid discoveries. We report here the earliest pterosaur with the diagnostic elongate metacarpus of the Pterodactyloidea, Kryptodrakon progenitor, gen. et sp. nov., from the terrestrial Middle-Upper Jurassic boundary of Northwest China. Phylogenetic analysis confirms this species as the basalmost pterodactyloid and reconstructs a terrestrial origin and a predominantly terrestrial history for the Pterodactyloidea. Phylogenetic comparative methods support this reconstruction by means of a significant correlation between wing shape and environment also found in modern flying vertebrates, indicating that pterosaurs lived in or were at least adapted to the environments in which they were preserved.

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(14)00322-4
Edited by Taipan, Apr 30 2014, 10:14 PM.
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How much whould it weight taipan?
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Taipan
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99007742.com
Apr 25 2014, 03:37 PM
How much whould it weight taipan?


Apologies for the late reply - a few pounds at a guess.

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