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 Scientists announced on Wednesday the remarkable discovery of
about 50 fossilized skeletons of a creature called Caiuajara
dobruskii, a type of flying reptile known as a pterosaur that lived
alongside the dinosaurs, at a site in southern Brazil.
These pterosaurs, whose wingspans measured up to nearly 8 feet (2.35
meters), inhabited a lakeside oasis in a large desert region during
the Cretaceous Period, living in vibrant colonies with others of the
same species of all ages, they said.
"This helps us to have a glimpse on the anatomical variation
achieved by this species from young to old," said Alexander Kellner,
a paleontologist with Brazil's National Museum at the Federal
University of Rio de Janeiro, who led the study.
Many pterosaurs, especially the later ones, boasted elaborate and
sometimes large head crests. Caiuajara's head was topped with a big
triangular crest that looked like "a bony sail," according to
Kellner. "It looks bizarre," he said.
There is no indication that the crest was limited to either males or
females, but it appears to have become ever larger relative to the
rest of the body as the pterosaur matured.
"The size of the crest was small in young animals and very large in
older ones," Kellner added.
Pterosaurs were Earth's first flying vertebrates, with birds and
bats making their appearances much later. They thrived from about
220 million years ago to 65 million years ago, when they were wiped
out by the asteroid that also doomed the dinosaurs.
The researchers described 47 skeletons in their study published in
the scientific journal PLOS ONE and said they have identified 10
more not described in the paper. They said this species lived about
80 to 90 million years ago.
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Caiuajara was toothless and most likely a fruit eater, Kellner said.
The skeletons of the juveniles strongly suggested they could fly at
a very young age, Kellner added.
Knowledge about pterosaurs has been spotty, with their fragile
skeletons not lending themselves well to fossilization. The sheer
number of Caiuajara individuals discovered and their variety of ages
have made it one of the best understood pterosaurs ever found, the
researchers said.
Chinese scientists in June said they had unearthed no fewer than 40
adult individuals of another newly identified pterosaur species as
well as five pterosaur eggs - very rare indeed - preserved
beautifully in three dimensions. [ID:nL1N0OK24L]
No eggs of Caiuajara have been found at the site in Brazil. "Not
yet. But one is allowed to dream, correct?" said Kellner.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Tom Brown)
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Ancient
flying reptile's head crest looked like a yacht's sail
