Short note on an anurognathid pterosaur with a long tail from the Upper Jurassic of China

Abstract

Pterosaurs consist of an extinct group of flying reptiles that show short- and long-tailed species. Among those are the anurognathids whose phylogenetic position has been considered quite controversial. So far, there are about 10 described specimens from the Anurognathidae, from which only a few show the preservation of caudal elements. Here, we report a new anurognathid specimen (IVPP V16728) from Mutoudeng, Qinglong, Hebei, China that shows the most complete tail of this non-pterodactyloid clade. The preserved part of the tail has at least 20 caudal vertebrae, some showing extended chevrons and zygapophyses, which is a very primitive character within pterosaurs.

Keywords::

• Anurognathidae
• Pterosauria
• caudal vertebrae
• Jurassic
• China

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Zhonghe Zhou and Yan Li for the field work, Yutong Li for the preparation of the specimens, and Jie Zhang for the photographs.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars [grant number 40825005], the National Key Basic Research Program of China [grant number 2012CB821900] and the Hundred Talents Project of CAS, Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro [grant numbers FAPERJ # E-26/102.737/2012 to AWAK and E-26/100.458/2012 to FRC], the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico [grant number CNPq # 307276/2009-9 to AWAK], and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior [grant number CAPES to FRC].