Caviramus

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Caviramus
Temporal range:
Ma
↓
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: †Pterosauria
Clade: †Caviramidae
Genus: †Caviramus
Fröbisch & Fröbisch, 2006
Species:
†C. schesaplanensis
Binomial name
†Caviramus schesaplanensis
Fröbisch & Fröbisch, 2006
Synonyms
  • Raeticodactylus filisurensis
    ? Stecher, 2008

Caviramus is a

caviramid pterosaur from the Late Triassic (early Rhaetian-age) lower Kössen Formation of the Northern Calcareous Alps of Switzerland
.

The genus was in 2006 named by Nadia Fröbisch and Jörg Fröbisch. The type species is Caviramus schesaplanensis. The genus name is derived from Latin cavus, "hollow" and ramus, "branch". The specific name refers to Mount Schesaplana.

Description

The genus is based on

isodont. The number of teeth is estimated at a minimum of twelve and a maximum of seventeen. A row of large oval foramina runs parallel to the tooth row; foramina in the form of small holes in the anterior part of the lower jaw suggest some sort of soft-tissue structure, or a keratin covering. The jaw is light and hollow. The teeth of this genus resemble those of Eudimorphodon, but the jaw is different. The discovery of this genus is a find of some significance, as there are few pterosaurs known from the Triassic.[1]

A second specimen, sometimes assigned to its own genus and species as

Raeticodactylus filisurensis, consists of a single disarticulated partial skeleton including an almost complete skull. The skull shows that it had a tall thin bony crest running along the midline of the front of the upper jaw, and a keel on the lower jaw. The teeth at the front of the upper jaw, in the premaxillae, were fanglike, whereas the teeth in the upper cheeks (the maxillae
) had three, four, or five cusps, similar to those of Eudimorphodon. Caviramus had a wingspan of about 135 centimeters (53 in).

Lifestyle

Based on its long limbs, it might have been a terrestrial forager. It bears a dentition atypically suited for

mastication, being more specialised to this than other eudimorphodonts, and may have been a generalist or herbivore. Its gracile wings suggested a soaring mode of flight.[2]

Classification

Despite the resemblance to Eudimorphodon the authors classified Caviramus as Pterosauria

Campylognathoididae[4] The following phylogenetic analysis follows the topology of Upchurch et al. (2015).[5]

Eopterosauria

Preondactylus buffarinii

Austriadactylus cristatus

Peteinosaurus zambellii

Eudimorphodontoidea
Raeticodactylidae

Raeticodactylus filisurensis

Caviramus schesaplanensis

Eudimorphodontidae

Arcticodactylus cromptonellus

Carniadactylus rosenfeldi

Eudimorphodon ranzii

In 2020 however, a study upheld by Matthew G. Baron about early pterosaur interrelationships found Caviramus to group with Carniadactylus, Raeticodactylus, and the

Austriadraconidae, which in turn were within a clade he called Caviramidae.[6]

See also

References

  1. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00581.x
    .
  2. ISBN 0691150613
    .
  3. hdl:10831/74599
    .
  4. ^ Dalla Vecchia, F.M. (2009). "Anatomy and systematics of the pterosaur Carniadactylus (gen. n.) rosenfeldi (Dalla Vecchia, 1995)". Rivista Italiana de Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 115 (2): 159–188.
  5. PMID 26339122
    .
  6. PMID 33005485
    .
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