Boreopterus
| Boreopterus | ||||||||||
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||
| Lower Cretaceous ( Barremium to Aptium ) | ||||||||||
| 130 to 112 million years | ||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Boreopterus | ||||||||||
| Lü & Ji , 2005 | ||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||
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Boreopterus is a genus of short-tailed pterodactic dinosaurs (Pterodactyloidea) from the Ornithocheiridae group . So far, a single, almost complete skeleton is known that comes from the Lower Cretaceous of the Yixian Formation ( Jehol group ) from Liaoning ( People's Republic of China ). Boreopterus wasscientifically described for the first timein 2005 with the only species Boreopterus cuiae .
The name Boreopterus ( Greek bore - "north"; pteron - "wing") means something like "northern wing" and points to the place of discovery in northern China. The second part of the species name, cuiae , honors Ms. Cui Xu, who discovered the fossil and made it available for research.
features
The snout is long and slender, with a skull crest, as shown by some other representatives of the Ornithocheiridae, missing. Boreopterus differs from other Ornithocheiridae in that it has larger and more numerous teeth: there are at least 27 teeth each in the upper and lower jaws, with the first 9 pairs of teeth being the largest. The fourth pair of teeth in the upper and lower jaw is slightly larger than the third; overall, however , Boreopterus shows less variation in tooth size than related genera. The thighbone (femur) is about the same length as the shinbone (tibia), while the humerus (humerus) is slightly shorter.
Find
The only known specimen (specimen number JZMP-04-07-3) is an almost complete, but crushed skeleton including skull. Parts of the shoulder and pelvic girdles are missing. The skeleton is from Jinzhou in western Liaoning. Today it is in the collection of the Paleontological Museum in Jinzhou.