Pterodactyloid pterosaur bones from Cretaceous deposits of the Antarctic Peninsula

Abstract Fossil vertebrates from Antarctica are considerably rare, hampering our understanding of the evolutionary history of the biota from that continent. For several austral summers, the PALEOANTAR project has been carrying out fieldwork in the Antarctic Peninsula in search for fossils, particula...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências
Main Authors: ALEXANDER W.A. KELLNER, TAISSA RODRIGUES, FABIANA R. COSTA, LUIZ C. WEINSCHÜTZ, RODRIGO G. FIGUEIREDO, GEOVANE A. DE SOUZA, ARTHUR S. BRUM, LÚCIA H.S. ELEUTÉRIO, CARSTEN W. MUELLER, JULIANA M. SAYÃO
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Academia Brasileira de Ciências 2019
Subjects:
Antarctica
Antarctic Peninsula
Pterosauria
PALEOANTAR
Cretaceous
Science
Q
Antarctic
The Antarctic
Austral
Ross Island
Vega Island
Hill Island
Snow Hill Island
Lachman
Lachman Crags
Snow Hill
Antarc*
James Ross Island
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1590/0001-3765201920191300
https://doaj.org/article/99b37982a56341f4a42dd5aa6d71652c
Description
Summary:Abstract Fossil vertebrates from Antarctica are considerably rare, hampering our understanding of the evolutionary history of the biota from that continent. For several austral summers, the PALEOANTAR project has been carrying out fieldwork in the Antarctic Peninsula in search for fossils, particularly Cretaceous vertebrates. Among the specimens recovered so far are two bones referable to Pterosauria, more specifically to the Pterodacyloidea, the first volant reptiles from Antarctica to be fully described. MN 7800-V (part and counterpart) was recovered from a moraine at the Abernathy Flats (Santa Marta Formation, Lachman Crags Member, Santonian-Campanian) on James Ross Island. It is interpreted as the distal articulation of a first phalanx of the wing finger, representing an animal with an estimated wingspan between 3 and 4 m. The second specimen (MN 7801-V) comes from Vega Island (Snow Hill Island Formation, Maastrichtian) and is identified as a wing metacarpal IV of an animal with an estimated wingspan from 4 to 5 m. These occurrences show that pterodactyloids inhabited the Antarctic Peninsula at least during the Upper Cretaceous and demonstrate that large pterosaurs were widespread through all parts of the planet during that period.

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