Genus of anhanguerid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous
Maaradactylus
is a
genus
of
anhanguerid
pterodactyloid
pterosaur
known from the
Lower Cretaceous
period (
Aptian
to
Albian
stages) of the
Romualdo Formation
of northeastern
Brazil
.
Discovery
[
edit
]
Maaradactylus
is
based on
the Museu Paleontologico de Santana do Cariri specimen MPSC R 2357, a skull,
atlas
, and
axis
discovered in 2010 in the
Aptian
?
Albian
-age Romualdo Formation of Sitio Sao Goncalo,
Santana do Cariri
,
Ceara
, in the Araripe Basin of Brazil.
Maaradactylus
was described by Renan Bantim and colleagues in
2014
. The
type species
is
Maaradactylus kellneri
. The generic name refers to Maara, in the legends of the
Cariri
the daughter of a chief, by sorcery changed into a river monster with long teeth, devouring fishermen. The suffix ~
dactylus
is common in the names of pterosaurs and is derived from Greek δ?κτυλο?,
daktylos
, "finger", referring to the long (fourth) wing finger. The
specific name
honors
Alexander Kellner
, Brazil's foremost pterosaur expert.
[2]
In 2019, the species
Coloborhynchus
spielbergi
, also assigned as
Anhanguera
spielbergi
, was reassigned to
Maaradactylus
by Megan L. Jacobs and colleagues as
M. spielbergi
.
[3]
This species was named after the filmmaker
Steven Spielberg
, the director of
Jurassic Park
by Andre J. Veldmeijer.
[4]
The holotype of this species was prepared from a chunk of limestone of Albian-age originating from the Romualdo Member of the
Santana Formation
in Brazil and has been part of the collection of
Naturalis Biodiversity Center
in Leiden, The Netherlands since 1992.
[5]
A replica is on display in one of the museum exhibitions.
Description
[
edit
]
Maaradactylus
had one of the largest anhanguerid skulls from the
Santana Group
, and this indicated a wingspan estimate of about 6 meters (20 ft). This
anhanguerid
also has a relatively tall crest running along the midline of the
premaxillary
bones, which make up most of the upper beak region, and placements for 35 pairs of teeth in the upper jaws.
[2]
The formerly known
Coloborhynchus spielbergi
(alternatively
Anhanguera spielbergi
), now
Maaradactylus spielbergi
, had rounded crests at the ends of expanded upper and lower jaws, similar to the related
ornithocheirids
.
[6]
However, rather than the crests being robust and box-shaped as seen in many ornithocheirid genera, the jaw tips were more slender and spoon-shaped, and the crest is thin from top to bottom, both features commonly seen in
anhanguerid
species typically referred to the genus
Anhanguera
, a genus in which
M. speilbergi
was classified by some researchers as
A. spielbergi
. As in other ornithocheirids, the size and orientation of the teeth vary considerably along the jawline. In
M. spielbergi
, the tooth pattern has been described as more similar to
Anhanguera
rather than to
Tropeognathus
.
[3]
Classification
[
edit
]
A topology recovered by Jacobs
et al.
in 2019 recovered
Maaradactylus
within the family
Anhangueridae
, and as the sister taxon of several
Anhanguera
species. Their cladogram is shown on the left.
[3]
In 2020 however, a study by Borja Holgado and Rodrigo Pegas had recovered
Maaradactylus
as the sister taxon of
Cearadactylus
, both belonging to the subfamily
Anhanguerinae
. Their cladogram is shown on the right.
[7]
Topology 1
: Jacobs
et al.
(2019).
|
Topology 2
: Holgado & Pegas (2020).
|
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Rodrigues, Taiss; Kellner, Alexander W. A. (2008).
"Review of the pterodactyloid pterosaur
Coloborhynchus
"
(PDF)
.
Zitteliana
.
28
: 219?228.
- ^
a
b
Renan A. M. Bantim; Antonio A. F. Saraiva; Gustavo R. Oliveira; Juliana M. Sayao (2014).
"A new toothed pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea: Anhangueridae) from the Early Cretaceous Romualdo Formation, NE Brazil"
.
Zootaxa
.
3869
(3): 201?223.
doi
:
10.11646/zootaxa.3869.3.1
.
PMID
25283914
.
- ^
a
b
c
Jacobs, M.L.; Martill, D.M.; Ibrahim, N.; Longrich, N. (2019).
"A new species of
Coloborhynchus
(Pterosauria, Ornithocheiridae) from the mid-Cretaceous of North Africa"
(PDF)
.
Cretaceous Research
.
95
: 77?88.
Bibcode
:
2019CrRes..95...77J
.
doi
:
10.1016/j.cretres.2018.10.018
.
S2CID
134439172
.
- ^
Veldmeijer, A.J. (2003).
"Description of Coloborhynchus spielbergi sp. nov.(Pterodactyloidea) from the Albian (Lower Cretaceous) of Brazil"
.
Scripta Geologica
.
125
(35): e139.
- ^
"Coloborhynchus spielbergi"
.
- ^
Veldmeijer, A.J., H.J.M. Meijer, and M. Signore (2006). "
Coloborhynchus
from the Lower Cretaceous Santana Formation, Brazil (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea, Anhangueridae); an update."
PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology
,
3
(2): 15?29.
- ^
Holgado, B.; Pegas, R.V. (2020).
"A taxonomic and phylogenetic review of the anhanguerid pterosaur group Coloborhynchinae and the new clade Tropeognathinae"
.
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
.
65
.
doi
:
10.4202/app.00751.2020
.