A pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Lapurr sandstone, West Turkana, Kenya

Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências

Patrick M. O'connor²  Joseph J.w. Sertich¹  Fredrick K. Manthi¹ 

[1] ,Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine Department of Biomedical Sciences Athens OH ,USA

关键词: Pterosauria;    Pterodactyloidea;    Africa;    Kenya;    Late Cretaceous;    Pterosauria;    Pterodactyloidea;    África;    Quênia;    Cretáceo Superior;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0001-37652011000100019

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

An isolated pterosaurian caudal cervical (~ postcervical) vertebra was recovered from the Upper Cretaceous Lapurr sandstone ofWest Turkana, northwestern Kenya. The vertebral centrum is short, wide, and dorsoventrally compressed. Although the specimen is lightly built similar to most pterosaurs, it is here referred to Pterodactyloidea and tentatively to the Azhdarchidae in that it lacks pneumatic features on both the centrum and neural arch. This represents one of the few pterosaurs recovered from the entirety of Afro-Arabia, the first pterosaur recovered from the Cretaceous of East Africa, and, significantly, a specimen that was recovered from fluvial deposits rather than the near-shore marine setting typical of most pterosaur discoveries.

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