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Extinct genus of reptiles
Harpactognathus
(meaning "seizing/grasping jaw") is a
genus
of
pterosaur
found in the
Late Jurassic
-age
Morrison Formation
of
Albany County
,
Wyoming
, United States. It is based on
NAMAL 101
, a partial skull consisting of the snout, recovered from near
Bone Cabin Quarry
in 1996. The specific name honors the discoverer, Joe Gentry, a volunteer for the Western Paleontological Laboratories, in
Lehi
,
Utah
.
[1]
The holotype of
Harpactognathus
consists of a partial rostrum.
[1]
Its describers found it to be most similar to
Scaphognathus
among pterosaurs, albeit substantially larger (estimated skull length of 280?300 mm (11?12 in), estimated
wingspan
of at least 2.5 m (8.2 ft). Because of the similarity,
Harpactognathus
was assigned to the subfamily
Scaphognathinae
of the family
Rhamphorhynchidae
. This genus is also notable for having a low bony crest running all the way to the tip of the
beak
(pterosaur bone crests usually do not reach the tip) and for being the oldest known Morrison Formation pterosaur, having been found in the Salt Wash Member (
Kimmeridgian
).
[1]
Paleobiology
[
edit
]
The authors hypothesized that Scaphognathines specialized as aerial predators in inland freshwater habitats. However, more recent publications have suggested scaphognathines lacked specializations for
piscivory
, and were likely terrestrial predators of small vertebrates or
corvid
-like generalists.
[2]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Carpenter, K., Unwin, D.M., Cloward, K., Miles, C.A., and Miles, C. (2003). A new scaphognathine pterosaur from the Upper Jurassic Formation of Wyoming, USA. In: Buffetaut, E., and Mazin, J.- M. (eds.).
Evolution and Palaeobiology of Pterosaurs.
Geological Society of London, Special Publications
217
:45-54.
- ^
Witton, Mark (2013). Pterosaurs: Natural History, Evolution, Anatomy. Princeton University Press. p. 51.
ISBN
978-0691150611
.