New pterosaur material from the Upper Jurassic of Tendaguru (Tanzania), Africa

Abstract

The pterosaur fossil record from Africa is exceedingly scarce and one of the least known for any continental land mass. The specimens here described are housed at the Naturkundemuseum of the Humboldt University and consist of two cervical vertebrae, a coracoid and a wing metacarpal recovered from the Upper Jurassic Tendaguru Formation, Tanzania. Due to the general morphology and the absence of a lateral pneumatic foramen in both vertebrae, as well as the presence of a longitudinal depression, not previously reported in pterosaurs, we consider these specimens as representatives of a new species of Azhdarchidae. Moreover, because the coracoid, which bears three well-developed pneumatic foramina, has a well-excavated depression that is medially positioned at the posterior face of the acrocoracoid process, we regard this as a new basal pterodactyloid species. The wing metacarpal is greatly elongated and clearly belongs to Pterodactyloidea. Its elongation and slender aspect, as well as the sub-triangular shape of its proximal articular end, likely place it within the Tapejaroidea. The material here described shows the potential of these deposits to provide more informative pterosaur material and provisionally extends the oldest record of azhdarchids to the Kimmeridgian–Tithonian of Africa.

Keywords::

• Tendaguru
• Tanzania
• Africa
• Upper Jurassic
• Pterosauria

Acknowledgements

The authors thank W. Heinrich for the access to the Tendaguru material, H. Silva for casting the original material, O. Grillo and T. Simões for taking the photographs, I. Nunes for helping with the figures and B. Jennings for reviewing the manuscript. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Notes

The research was conducted at the Laboratório de Sistemática e Tafonomia de Vertebrados Fósseis, Departamento de Geologia e Paleontologia, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.

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Additional information

Funding

This project was partially supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) [fellowship to FRC], with additional support by the Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro [FAPERJ, no. E-26/102.779/2008 to AWAK and no. E-26/100.458/2012 to FRC] and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [CNPq, no. 307276/2009-0 to AWAK; no. 401787/2010-9 to JMS].