Annexuera
Annexuera | ||||||||||||
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Reconstructed skeleton of Annexuera in quadruped position, in the North American Museum of Ancient Life |
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Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
Lower to Upper Cretaceous ( Albium to Cenomanium ) | ||||||||||||
112.9 to 93.9 million years | ||||||||||||
Locations | ||||||||||||
Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Annexuera | ||||||||||||
Campos & Kellner , 1985 |
Anhanguera is a genus of Flugsaurier (Pterosauria) in 1985 by fossil record from the Brazilian Santana formation - a fossil deposit from the lower and upper chalk - described was. The name Annexuera comes from the Tupí , the language of the local Indians, and means "old devil" ( anhanga - devil; nera - old). Annexuera is one of the best-researched pterosaurs of the Cretaceous period. Some incomplete skeletons and skulls are known.
features
Annexuera had a slender skull that could be half a meter long. There was a bone ridge on the front upper jaw , the lower jaw of the type specimen has not been preserved. Annexuera could reach a wingspan of four meters, the fuselage was only 24 cm long. A three-dimensional reconstruction of the pelvis shows that Appendixuera could not place his hind legs vertically under the body and therefore could not walk biped (on two legs). Rather, his legs protruded sideways and forced the animals to walk in a quadruple manner. Different species have been described, which differ mainly in the position of the bone crest. However, this could also be a gender difference .
species
- Annexuera blittersdorffi ( type species )
- Annexuera ligabuei
- Annexuera piscator
- Annexuera santanae ( Syn . : Araripesaurus santanae )
literature
- Peter Wellnhofer : The illustrated encyclopedia of pterosaurs. Crescent Books, New York NY 1991, ISBN 0-517-03701-7 .
Initial descriptions
- Diogenes A. Campos, Alexander WA Kellner: Panorama of the Flying Reptiles Study in Brazil and South America (Pterosauria / Pterodactyloidea / Annexueridae). In: Anais da Academia Brasileira Ciencias. Vol. 57, No. 4, 1985, ISSN 0001-3765 , pp. 141-142 and 453-466.
- Peter Wellnhofer: New pterosaurs from the Santana Formation (Apt) of the Chapada do Araripe, Brazil. In: Palaeontographica. Department A: Paleozoology, Stratigraphy. Vol. 187, No. 4/6, 1985, ISSN 0375-0442 , pp. 105-182.
- Peter Wellnhofer: Further pterosaur finds from the Santana Formation (Apt) of the Chapada do Araripe. In: Palaeontographica. Department A: Paleozoology, Stratigraphy. Vol. 215, No. 1/3, 1991, pp. 43-101.