Annexuera piscator
| Annexuera piscator | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Annexuera piscator , live reconstruction |
||||||||||||
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Lower Cretaceous ( Aptium ) | ||||||||||||
| 126.3 to 112.9 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Annexuera piscator | ||||||||||||
| Kellner & Tomida, 2000 |
Annexuera piscator is a representative of the extinct pterosaurs from the Santana formation in Brazil .
The Art belongs within the pterodactyloidea (Pterodactyloidea) to the group of Anhangueridae ( "Altteufelartige") and lived in the Lower Cretaceous ( Aptian ). The pterosaur was placed in the closely related genus Coloborhynchus by Kellner & Tomida in 2000 , but this assignment is not generally recognized.
Origin of name
The generic name Appendixuera ( anhanga - "devil"; nera - "old") - "old devil" comes from the Tupi language of the Indian people of the same name who live in the region in northeastern Brazil, from which the fossil finds come and refer on an evil spirit. The Latin epithet piscator means "fisherman".
anatomy
Partial skeletons and various bones of this pterosaur are known. Annexuera piscator probably had a wingspan of a good four meters and a skull length of about 50 centimeters. This made the skull about twice as long as the trunk. The long, narrow snout region had many long and pointed teeth. A narrow ridge along the top of the snout probably supported the stability of the flight when packing the prey. A. piscator's foot is one of the smallest of all pterosaurs. CT images of his brain show that the flocculus , the area of the brain that processes the signals transmitted by the organ of equilibrium, was larger than that of birds. This made the animal an agile and skilled flyer.
Way of life
It is believed that the species lived on fishing and - like the related species A. santanae and A. blittersdorffi - moved four-legged (quadruped) on the ground, comparable to today's vampire bats .