Sordes
Sordes | |
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Fossil specimen | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Order: | †Pterosauria |
Clade: | † Breviquartossa
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Clade: | † Pterodactylomorpha
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Genus: | †Sordes Sharov, 1971 |
Type species | |
†Sordes pilosus Sharov, 1971
|
Sordes was a small
This genus was named in 1971 by Aleksandr Grigorevich Sharov.[1] The type species is Sordes pilosus. The genus name is Latin for "filth" or "scum"; but Sharov translates it as "nechist", which means "devil" or "evil spirit", so the intended translation is "hairy devil"[2] (the specific name is Latin for "hairy"; despite sordes being feminine, it has not yet been emended to pilosa[original research?]).
Discovery
Sordes is based on the
Sharov had already referred a
Description
This section needs additional citations for verification. (October 2017) |
Sordes had a 0.63 m (2 ft) wingspan. The wings were relatively short. Sordes had, according to Sharov and Unwin, wing membranes attached to the legs and a membrane between the legs. It had a short neck. It had a long tail, accounting for over half its length, with at the end an elongated vane.
Skull and dentition
It had a slender, not round, head with moderately long, pointed jaws. The skull was about 8 cm (3.2 in) long. Unlike many pterosaurs, it had no head crest. The teeth in the frontal half of the jaws are large and pointed to facilitate prey capture. The teeth beyond these in the rear half of the jaw are much smaller and more numerous than those at the front, suggesting that they were more for crushing. Together these two types of teeth indicate specialisation for prey that was difficult to catch yet required some effort to eat. Likely contenders are invertebrates with tougher exoskeletons, or amphibians that were slippery to catch and then required some crunching before they could be swallowed.[citation needed]
Pycnofibers
The
Classification
Sordes has been assigned to the family
See also
References
- ^ Sharov, A. G. 1971 Novyiye lyetayushchiye reptili iz myezozoya Kazakhstana i Kirgizii [New flying reptiles from the Mesozoic of Kazakhstan and Kirghizia]. Trudy paleont. Inst. Moscow. Russian text with end plates.
- ^ Bakhurina, N.N.; Unwin, D.M. (1995). "The evidence for 'hair' in Sordes and other pterosaurs". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 15.
- ^ Elgin, R.A., Hone, D.W.E., and Frey, E. 2011. The extent of the pterosaur flight membrane. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 56 (1): 99–111. [1]