Rhamphocephalus Humerus

 The Rotunda Museum at Scarborough has a Pterosaur specimen from the Stonesfield Slate.  It is a small Humerus and has not been classified as yet.

This is the image extracted from the digital photograph of the specimen.  It looks like a Pterosaur humerus, but it is squashed and distorted.  It shows signs of damage and decay and has been redeposited from its original source.

It is difficult to match the specimen to an existing Pterosaur type, but assuming that the shaft has a break about half way along and the proximal articular end has bits missing, the image can be seen in a rotated position to match with a specific type of Rhamphocephalus humrus.

This image shows the amount of adjustment required to the specimen to see a conformation with the Ashwell specimen Humerus which is assigned to this genus.

Rotunda Museum, Vernon Road, Scarborough, YO11 2PS. UK.

info@scarboroughmuseumsandgalleries.org.uk

Dinosaur and Fossil Shop, Robin Hood's Bay

On a visit to Robin Hood's Bay on the Yorkshire Coast, UK,  I spotted a cast replica of a Anhanguera, hanging from the ceiling.

This is a composite reconstruction of a model using cast material from a number of specimens.  It looks like the Gaston design Inc., mounted model which is on sale for $6800.

Robert Gastons studio is in Fruita, Colorado, U.S.A.

 

Devon Howard Dinosaur and Fossil Shop, New Road, Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire, YO22 4SF, UK.

dinosaurrhb@gmail.com

 

Scientific Papers

During 2019, many researchers started to put older papers on line.  The deposits in data holding sites are becoming more easily available as more information is stored centrally.

Here is a list of some of the best sites for obtaining copies of scientific papers.  A membership or enrolment is often required before papers can be downloaded.  Basic facilities are occasionally free of charge:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/      Wiley Online Library

https://journals.plos.org/    Plos Journals

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/   Plos One Online Journal

https://peerj.com/    Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences

https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/  The Geological Society

https://www.jstor.org/      Ithaka Journal Service

https://www.palass.org/publications/  The Palaeontological Association

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/    British Geological Survey

https://www.academia.edu/     Academia

Pterosaur Feathers

For a long time it has been known that some pterosaurs have hair.  This has been seen as pycnofibers in some fossils.  It is only with the advent of better quality fossils and improved techniques that the nature of these hairs is being better understood.  This is documented in the following paper:

Yang Z., Jiang B., McNamara M. E., Kearnes S. L., Pittman M., Kaye T. G., Orr P. J., Xu X. and Benton M. J., 2019, Pterosaur integumentary structures with complex feather-like branching, Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2018; 3 (1): 24

There appears to be 4 types of hair like fibres found in pterosaur specimens of Anurognathus, Sordes, Jeholopterus and Pterorhynchus.  It is probable that these fibres are found in many more pterosaur Genus groups.  They are similar to feathery structures seen on some dinosaurs.

 Type 1 - Pycnofibers.  These are seen in abundance on Sordes Pilosis and have been documented before by Bakhurina and Unwin.  These are seen to be hollow stemmed hair like fibres which are now known to contain melanosomes which are chemically similar to red and black pigment melanosomes and would probably have given a brown colouration to the fibres.

 Type 2 and 3 - Radially symmetrical branching fibres.  These are found on the head, neck and limbs of the sampled pterosaurs and may be associated with airflow dynamics or thermal insulation.

 Type 4 - Bilaterally branching wing fibres.  These feather like fibres are found across the wing membranes and are similar to some dinosaur feather structures, suggesting a distant common ancestor.  This wing membrane association could be involved with insulation or thermoregulation.
When I see structures like this, I look to the function of wing contour feathers in birds.  It is likely that these feathered structures may also have been sensory, giving information about airflow over the flying surfaces to warn of stall limits and variable pressures on those surfaces.

This work is an important enhancement of current knowledge about pterosaur biology and shows more detail about these advanced flyers.

These structures are seen as compacted masses of hair like mats on suitably well preserved fossils.  Extracting information about single hairs is quite an achievement.

Pterosaur T-Shirt

Studio 252MYA   has a range of T-shirts, some of which have pterosaur motifs.  They are on sale over the Internet from the US, and can be mailed to most parts of the world.

They start at $22 US and there is postage and tax to add to the cost if you are outside of the US.  These are the first pterosaur related T-shirts that I have been satisfied with and they come in a variety of colours and designs.

The T-shirt shown cost a total of $30.96 to be shipped to the UK. This was a total of £22.56 at the then current exchange rate and took 12 days to arrive on my doorstep.

(If in doubt, go one size larger than expected)

Wukongopterus Lii

The "Dinosaurs of China" exhibition is now open at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham.  This is an exceptional chance to see some of the most important fossil finds from China at first hand.  The most interesting specimen for me was not the immense casts of the large sauropod and raptor dinosaurs, but the last fossil in the display - The pterosaur Wukongopterus lii.

This specimen is held in a glass case with the reflections of the hall showing on any photograph, but visually, the detail of this fine fossil can be seen.

The magic of direct photography brings the full detail of the specimen to view.  Previously I have only seen drawings and press images of this fossil.  To see the complete specimen is stunning.

This is a basal pterosaur from the Daohugou Beds of Liauning Province.  This is the Holotype - IVPP V-15113.  It is one of the earliest forms of its type from the Late Jurassic, showing similarities with other earlier forms like Darwinopterus.

For me, The exhibition was worth seeing for this one specimen.

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

 Another interesting fossil is that of Yi qu, a modest sized feathered dinosaur with a bird like skeleton and what appears to be a bat like wing.  This unusual anatomical structure poses questions about its lifestyle.

 Of course, the largest specimen is the Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis which is 23m long and mounted upright to enable it to fit into the main hall gallery.  Wow!

The Lapworth Museum of Geology

 I have not had any contact with the Lapworth Museum at Birmingham University Edgbaston Campus since the mid 1980's.  This museum has seen a significant improvement in many respects since then and is well worth a visit. The  University railway station is a short walk away and it can be accessed from Redditch, Birmingham New Street or Litchfield.

 There is a striking life size model of the skeleton of Pteranodon ingens suspended from  the main fossil gallery ceiling.  This gives a good idea of the size of these large Late Cretaceous pterosaurs.

 A cast of the Bonn fossil of Scaphognathus crassidens shows how the Late Jurassic rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs had sturdy skeletons and well armed jaws.

 By contrast, the lighter and more gracile Pterodactylus antiquus skeleton cast of one of the Munich specimens shows a different type of Late Jurassic pterosaur.  Both of these casts are of exceptional quality, being professionally produced from the original fossils.  Many commercial copies are not nearly so good.
The museum collections are arranged to give a good understanding about the distribution of fossil types across geological time, which is exactly what a university museum collection should do. 

Of course, there are other aspects of the fossil collections here that are just as interesting and amazing as the pterosaur offerings.  Next time I am in Birmingham I shall consider another visit to this fascinating place.

The Biddulph Grange Gardens Pterosaur

On a recent visit to Biddulph Grange Gardens I was looking at the progress in the geology gallery when I spotted a pterosaur skull on a cast of a lithographic limestone slab.  This was a pterosaur fossil that I had not been aware of.  After contacting the grange, I was put in touch with Daniel Atherton, who is part of the restoration project responsible for the refurbishment of the Geological Gallery.  I was invited to inspect the original slab which was recorded as a fish fossil due to the presence of a number of fish remains visible.

Amongst the fish jaws was a skull resembling that of Pterodactylus antiquus.

The skull is very worn and has many damaged and broken bones.  The upper mandible is obscured by the presence of a fish jaw.  The posterior skull is also broken and part of the basal skull is displaced downwards.

On the edge of the slab is what appears to be a wing bone association.  On original inspection I glossed over this part of the slab.  On closer examination, this represents the dorsal spine and sacrum, with caudal vertebrae at one end and a thoraxic vertebra at the other.  Two fish bones are seen to line up with this associated group of pterosaur bones to give the impression of a pterosaur wing.

 

 The fossil is stored away from the public, but a cast of this slab can be seen in the Geology Gallery at Biddulph Grange Gardens, Staffordshire.
This fossil was collected in Victorian times, but there is no record of the source.  It has only recently been found to contain pterosaur material.  More information will follow as it becomes available.

 

Dinosaur Plate

I recently found this plate at the Emma Bridgewater factory shop in Stoke-on-Trent, UK.  It has been decorated using a sponge print method by hand, showing a sauropod dinosaur surrounded by 8 pterosaurs.  On the back rim can be seen a circle of brown trilobites.

This appears to be a one off design as it has not appeared on the factory stock sheets.  There is a decorating studio on the factory premises where children and adults can pay a small fee for the opportunity to decorate their own pottery.  This may be an uncollected piece which has been sold in store.  It may also be a demonstration plate used by staff at the studio.

Apart from the source and the label on the back, I have no other information on this pottery piece.  Having done an Internet search, it is clear that there is a lot of dinosaur and pterosaur stuff out there.  It is quite fun to see what is available.

Jurassic Kites

This summer I found a kite design by a company called Jurassic Kites.  Having sent for one, just for fun, I had go.  The design was developed by Sibyl King and it is manufactured by Peterkin UK Ltd.

 The kite comes neatly folded in a thin sleeve and is ready harnessed, just needing two pins fixing to brace the wings and a line (supplied)  attaching to the harness loop.

 Then its up to the top of a windy Knoll - in this case the hills under Thorpe Cloud at Ilam, Derbyshire, UK - Then up it goes.

 The first attempt was in low gusty winds and the kite was easily stalled.  It took some skill to keep it airborne.  With a smaller relative surface area than a conventional kite, this one needs a constant 5+ knot wind ( at least 6 miles per hour) to keep it aloft.

 This was no problem as the wind speed increased.  At a distance, this is a quite convincing kite.  The streamers are needed to stabilise the kite direction.  Without them it will loop wildly.  I am tempted to try it with shorter wing streamers, but that will wait until I have some lighter ribbons of clear plastic.

 With a little more wind, the kite becomes much more stable.

Bringing it down is easy if you peg the cord to the ground and walk along shortening the cord until the kite is near ground level.  Much quicker to crash the kite, but I want to fly this one again.
It is years since I seriously flew a kite - What fun.

Gordon Cullen

In 1958, a tile wall mural was commissions for the lower precinct in Coventry.  It represented much of the history of the city.  The work was undertaken by Gordon Cullen and installed during the redevelopment in 1958.

As part of the mural, there is a wall showing prehistoric creatures.  One is a representation of a pterosaur.

This could be of Dimorphodon macronys, though the characteristics are very generalised.  It is good to see such a ceramic representation from 1958.

Pterosaurs at Liverpool

 Having recently visited the Liverpool World Museum to see the cast of Quetzalcoatlus northropi suspended in the Foyer, I saw a number of specimens on display in the galleries.  The specimen in the foyer is big and imposing.

 In the education centre was a cast of a Tropiognathus skull.  This was a substantial sized pterosaur.

 A lone Rhamphocephalus bucklandi tooth from the stonesfield slate at Naunton, Gloucestershire was also on display.  This is a small, but complete tooth.

 Three plaster casts of small Solnhofen pterosaurs from the Lithographic Limestone of Bavaria are displayed along with a wing phalange of Pteranodon, from Kansas in the same display as the Rhamphocephalus tooth.

There is also a phalange from the lithographic limestone of Bavaria that is attributed to Pterodactylus.  Both ends are damages, but this seems a good association to me.

There is also a small, but somewhat outdated model of a pterodactylus, of which I do not have a photograph.  The World Museum at Liverpool is an excellent visit if you have not been before.

Humerus crests

The large deltoid process in pterosaur humeri show a great degree of variation between species and families.  Early Rhamphorhynchoid species tend to have deep, long and flat deltoid processes whilst later species show a narrowing and extending of this process.  Later pterodactyloid species tend towards a curved deltoid process on the Humerus.

This shows an example of some of the types.  Two later pterodactyloid species on the left and three earlier Rhamphorhynchoid species on the right.

These examples of early Rhamphorhynchoid humeri show the simple joint structures and the flat profile of the deltoid crest

By contrast, the humeri of larger pterodactyloid species show a different structure.  The joint surfaces are more complex and the deltoid crest is far from flat, showing a curved shape with a pronounced articular surface.

The curved shape of the deltoid crest can be seen in these images.
Pterosaurs were a very diverse order of animals, showing a vast variation of forms across millions of years of time.  As they became more specialised, the skeletal structures showed more complexity.  Many of the structural bones of the skeleton demonstrate variation in this way, less so in the wing phalanges.

Web server issues

The Pterosaur Database has experienced a server file loss on the morning of the 19th April 2015.  The cause was an internal problem. About half of the files have been restored and the site is working in part.  It is hoped that all function will be restored in the next two days.  Alas, there is no backup server for this "free to use" site.

2 days on:  The server content has been restored to last months state, with recent files being updated manually.  I hope I have restored all of the files that were absent, but there may be issues with some missed updates.  It is unlikely that this technical failure will be repeated. I took the option of a server side recovery as a total reload would have used up vast amounts of upload time  (15 minutes as opposed to 26 hours).  All seems well so far.

The bare bones

Anna Chekovsky has requested permission to translate some of the pages of this blog into French at http://www.teilestore.de/edu/ .  Initially there was an issue with copyright of images and permissions had to be sought.  In the process, this put me back in touch with Bruce Mohn, the well renowned skeletal reproduction sculptor.  His portfolio of work has expanded considerably since 2009 and I am very impressed by the superb quality of his models.

 His model of Pterodactylus Antiquus represents a skeleton based on several good specimens of this, the first known pterosaur species, giving it a very modern stance based on current research.

Equally, the model of Rhamphorhynchus muensteri is a classic reproduction sculpture of the famous Solnhofen Slate pterosaur skeleton.
I am now starting to develop pages based on people who are able to offer such items as would grace any museum of repute.  The reproduction pages are hopefully going to develop as time progresses.

http://www.pterosaur.org.uk/PDB2012/M/reproductions/ReproIndex.htm

Wisbech and Fenland Specimens

Wisbech and Fenland Museum was first opened in 1847 in its present form.  It is amongst the oldest purpose built museums in the UK and the character of its galleries are typically Victorian in essence.  However, the museum functions as a sophisticated modern organisation in all other respects.  This is a museum not to be missed if you are within travelling distance.

Behind the scenes there are a few fragmentary pterosaur bones within the collections.  They are not remarkable, but such fragments should not be forgotten as they may help shed light on other specimens, as yet unknown.

This pelvic bone fragment has only its original label for information.  It is most likely from a large Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur from the Middle Jurassic age.

Here is a bone that has its extremities missing.  Such specimens are very difficult to identify beyond the anatomical position of the bone on a skeleton.

Here is a more complete and much more finely preserved bone which shows some similarity with Dsungeripterid pterosaur bones.  More work is needed here.

J317-Pterodactylus longicollum  Wing metacarpal (right)
J319a-Rhamphorhynchoid sp  Wing metacarpal (proximal)  
       about 50% of length of bone, Stonesfield Slate 
J319b-Rhamphorhynchoid sp  Wing metacarpal 
       (shaft fragment), Stonesfield Slate
J320-Rhamphorhynchus sp  Humerus (left, dorsal aspect),
       Stonesfield Slate
J321a-Rhamphorhynchoid sp  Tooth, Stonesfield Slate
J321b-Rhamphorhynchoid sp  Tooth, Stonesfield Slate
J321c-Rhamphorhynchoid sp  Scapula, Stonesfield Slate
      -Indeterminate  Pubis (of a large pterodactyl), Stonesfield Slate
      -Indeterminate  Wing metacarpal (fragment), Stonesfield Slate

The Stonesfield Slate is a deferred deposit which contains a significant number of fragmentary fossils that are Middle Jurassic in age. Pterosaurs from this age are very rare and not well studied compared to those of other geological ages.