Bellubrunnus
Holotype of Bellubrunnus ( scale bar corresponds to 1 cm)
- Brunner limestones ( Germany )
- Bellubrunnus rothgaengeri Hone et al. 2,012
Bellubrunnus ( " Beautiful Brunner " ) is a genus of pterosaur ( Pterosauria ) from the Upper Jurassic of Central Europe. Your only way Bellubrunnus rothgaengeri, was a small member of Rhamphorhynchidae, by the curving wing bones, a long tail and short dentate, pine distinguished. The genus is known from a single fossil, an almost perfectly preserved young animal, which was found in the Brunner Solnhofen in southern Germany. Bellubrunnus inhabited during his lifetime a tropical, coastal archipelago and fed possibly of fish.
In 2002 found the remains of the genus were first described in 2012. They are similar to those of the Late Jurassic Rhamphorhynchus was probably closely related to the Bellubrunnus. The temporal and spatial proximity of the two species suggests that it is with them is be sister or Bellubrunnus that was a precursor of Rhamphorhynchus.
Features
Bellubrunnus was a typical Rhamphorhynchide with a long tail and a relatively short metacarpal. He had edentulous jaw and was characterized by curving fourth wing phalanges. Since no adult specimens have been found so far, can only be closed on the early form of animals. Juveniles of Bellubrunnus had short, rather triangular skull with relatively very large eyes, as can be inferred from the dimensions of the Skleralringe. In the mouth it had 20-22 teeth, but it is unclear how they were distributed spatially. The teeth were sharp and straight shape differed so some of the backward curved teeth of Rhamphorhynchus. The wing finger of the holotype is 93 mm long, its humerus 14 mm. The tail of Bellubrunnus had only a very short pre-and postzygapophyses and Chevronknochen. In its basic morphology of the species showed significant similarities to Rhamphorhynchus, differed from this but most of all by the vertebrae of the tail, the curved wing bones as well as the weaker dentition.
Locality, fossil material and stratigraphy
The only copy of Bellubrunnus comes from a quarry near the Bavarian Brunn, where Monika Rothgänger 2002 took place in the framework of private excavations. It is an almost complete, articulated and largely preserved skeleton of a young animal (inventory number BSP 1993 -XVIII -2), which is now under a mayor -Müller Museum Solnhofen. His discovery layer Brunner Plattenkalke is ( 152.1 mya ) dated to the late Kimmeridgian. It falls into the Subeumela subzone ( beckeri zone), as can be seen on the basis of fossil ammonite fauna handed. The carbonate sediments deposited there come a lagoon that was part of the Jurassic Archipelago in what is now southern Germany.
Ecology
The Brunner ecosystem is characterized over the slightly younger Solnhofen layers by reefs and bioherms. As the former archipelago of Solnhofen they were characterized by a warm climate. So far, the remains were uncovered of fish in the Brunner deposit mainly, besides Bellubrunnus are a young turtles and four Sphenodontier the only encountered terrestrial vertebrates. The curved wing ends of Bellubrunnus point out that it was good flyers in the animals.
Systematics and Taxonomy
The specimen found by Rothgänger was first described in 2012 by David Hone, Helmut table Linger, Eberhard Frey and Martin Roper as a new genus and species. They named the new taxon Bellubrunnus rothgaengeri. The genus name means " Beautiful Brunner " and refers to the locality, the specific epithet honors Monika Rothgänger for their exploration of the archaeological site over many years. Based on the general morphology Hone and colleagues arranged the fossil as a representative of Rhamphorhynchidae, a group of pterosaurs, which occurred for the first time in the Toarcian and became extinct at the end of the Tithonian. Bellubrunnus shows within the Rhamphorhynchidae especially with Rhamphorhynchus similarities, who lived in the same region in the Tithonian. Although the authors did not carry out phylogenetic analysis, but they emphasized the possibility that it could be at Bellubrunnus and Rhamphorhynchus to be sister. Since both genera have but have not found sympatric Bellubrunnus could also be the direct ancestor of the genus Rhamphorhynchus.