Albadraco
Albadraco | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Order: | †Pterosauria |
Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
Family: | †Azhdarchidae |
Genus: | †Albadraco Solomon, Codrea, Venczel & Grellet-Tinner, 2019 |
Type species | |
†Albadraco tharmisensis Solomon, Codrea, Venczel & Grellet-Tinner, 2019
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Albadraco is an
Discovery and naming
At the site of Oarda de Jos, near Alba Iulia in Alba County, two jaw pieces were found of a large pterosaur. The discovery was reported and illustrated in a dissertation by Cătălin Jipa-Murzea in 2012.[1]
In 2019, the type species Albadraco tharmisensis was named and described by Alexandru Adrian Solomon, Vlad Aurel Codrea, Márton Venczel and Gerald Grellet-Tinner. The generic name combines a reference to Alba with the Latin draco, "dragon". The specific name refers to a provenance near Tharmis, the ancient Dacian name of Alba Iulia.[2]
The holotype, PSMUBB V651a, b, was found in a layer of the Șard Formation dating from the latest Maastrichtian, sixty-six million years old. It consists of two fused premaxillae of the snout (PSMUBB V651a) and a piece of the symphysis of the lower jaws (PSMUBB V651b). Both parts were assumed to have belonged to a single individual, perhaps a subadult animal. It is the first example from the Cretaceous of Europe of a pterosaur exemplar preserving both upper jaw and lower jaw elements.[2]
A second specimen, PSMUBB V652, a fourth neck vertebra from the same site, was referred to the species. It too is from a subadult animal and the describing authors considered it possible that it represented the same individual as the holotype.[2]
Description
The wingspan of the holotype was estimated at five to six metres, by extrapolation from the jaw pieces. The adult size was estimated at a span of six to seven metres. Albadraco shared its habitat with Hatzegopteryx and the possibility was considered that its holotype was only a juvenile exemplar of that giant pterosaur. This was deemed improbable however, because the holotype bone structure resembled that of subadult animals, not of fast growing young individuals.[2]
The describing authors indicated five distinguishing traits. They were
Phylogeny
In 2019, Albadraco was placed in the Azhdarchidae, based on the comparative method.[2]
See also
References
- ^ Jipa-Murzea, C., 2012, Upper Cretaceous continental vertebrate assemblages from Metaliferi sedimentary area: systematics, paleoecology and paleobiogeography, PhD Thesis Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, 228 pp
- ^ .