Piksi
| Piksi | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Order: | †Pterosauria |
| Suborder: | †Pterodactyloidea |
| Genus: | †Piksi Varricchio, 2002 |
| Species: | †P. barbarulna
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Piksi barbarulna Varricchio, 2002
| |
Piksi is a potential
The fossils were found in 1991 by
Description and classification
The bones are fragmentary and represent roughly the elbow area. Comparing the fossils' size to the wing bones of other ground birds, P. barbarulna would have been relatively small, with a wingspan reaching 1 m (3.3 ft).[1]
The original description of the fossils found its affinities unresolvable except that it was probably an ornithothoracine bird. Agnolin and Varricchio (2012) reinterpreted Piksi barbarulna as a pterosaur rather than a bird, most likely a member of Ornithocheiroidea.[3] However, it has since been noted that the humerus of Piksi possesses features which found in some theropods but not in any pterodactyloid pterosaurs.[4]
However, more recent studies have recovered it as a pterosaur again.[1]
Ecology
The deposit in which the bones were found was a
Judging from the
A diverse fauna utilized the location as a
See also
References
- ^
- ^ (Varricchio 2002)
- S2CID 56002643.
- PMID 27853614.
- ^ Though still much warmer than today: see Cretaceous for contemporary climate.
Sources
- Senter, Phil (2006): Scapular orientation in theropods and basal birds, and the origin of flapping flight. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 51(2): 305–313. PDF fulltext
- Snow, David W.; Perrins, Christopher M.; Doherty, Paul & Cramp, Stanley (1998): The complete birds of the western Palaearctic on CD-ROM. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-268579-1
- Varricchio, David J. (2002): A new bird from the Upper Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 39(1): 19–26. HTML abstract[permanent dead link]
