Araripesaurus

• South America ( Santana Formation, Brazil)

• Araripesaurus castilhoi

Araripesaurus is a genus of pterosaur ( Pterosauria ) from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil. This short-tailed pterosaurs lived about 110 million years and is placed in the system to the Ornithocheiridae. Only the type species A. castilhoi is scientifically described.

The first description of the genus published the Brazilian paleontologist Llewellyn Ivor Price (1905-1980) in 1971. Araripesaurus is the first scientifically described pterosaur from the Santana Formation. This formation on the slopes of Araripe Plateau is one of the most important sites for pterosaur from the Cretaceous period.

The description of the underlying fossil specimen, the holotype, was encased in a concretion of limestone. This is typical of the Santana Formation Type of Fossil preservation has received excellent addition to other Cretaceous creatures and the thin bone of pterosaurs. In this rock tuber ( Geode ), there were parts of the right wing. Of these, the fourth metacarpal bone was ( metacarpus ), which supported the long flight fingers get completely the only bone. From its length of 11.8 inches, a wingspan of 2.2 meters can be calculated for this individual. Partly preserved are the upper arm bone (humerus ), the ulna ( ulna ) and the radius ( radius ) and the carpal bones ( carpal bones ) and individual elements ( phalanges ) of the fingers. However, because of the diagnostically significant skull was not found, the reliability of Price systematic assignment of the genus to the Ornithocheiriden is questionable.