A recent paper published this year has revealed a wealth of pterosaur information from one find. A bad weather event about 120 million years ago preserved the remains of 40 pterosaurs of a single colony along with 5 eggs.
Found at a site in the Turpan-Hami Basin near the Tian Shan Mountains in Xinjiang, China, this skull is a complete one of an assumed female specimen of
Hamipterus tianshanensis. It clearly shows a shallow crest and a pterodactyloid structure to the skeleton.
Remains of other individuals show a more prominent nasal crest and these are presumed males, consistent with the evidence found in Darwinopterus regarding male-female sexual dimorphism.
Alongside the remains were 5 pterosaur eggs, preserved in full form. They have thin, soft, calcareous shells and a sturdy membrane on the inner side of the shell.
This find has been well studied by some of the biggest names in pterosaur research and it is a landmark find. This is clear evidence of colonial behaviour and flocking in pterosaurs. It also reinforces the ideas that some species display sexual dimorphism and it associates eggs with adult and sub-adult animals.
These specimens are now in the Beijing Palaeontology Museum (IVPP).
Wang X., Kellner A. W. A., Jiang S., Wang Q., Ma Y., Paidoula Y., Cheng X., Rodrigues T., Meng X., Zhang J., Li N. and Zhou Z., 2014,
Sexually Dimorphic Tridimensionally Preserved Pterosaurs and Their Eggs
from China, Current Biology. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.04.054
