Guidraco

Guidraco, reconstruction

• Jiufotang Formation in western Liaoning, China

Guidraco is a short-tailed pterosaurs ( Pterodactyloidea ), whose fossil remains date near the Chinese city of Ling Yuan ( Western Liaoning ) in deposits of Jiufotang - formation from the Lower Cretaceous. The only way is Guidraco venator. The species name is composed of the Chinese " Gui ", a malicious spirit in Chinese mythology, and the Latin " draco " for Dragon. The Style epithet " venator " means hunter ( Latin).

Features

The holotype specimen of Guidraco consists of the skull, the Axis and three other cervical vertebrae. Since some skull elements (eg, the frontal bone and the premaxilla ) are not yet grown together, it is believed that the animal was not yet fully grown at the time of his death,. The skull length, measured from the premaxilla to the posterior end of the shed leg is 38 cm, the bony part of the nose ( rostrum ) is 20.5 cm long ( 54% of the skull length). The premaxilla is long and has contact with the frontal bone, but does not extend to the posterior end of the skull. The orbit is oval, elongated dorsoventrally and differs from that of other Pteranodontiden as Anhanguera, Dawndraco and Pteranodon ( with the exception of Ludodactylus ) by a more rounded lower margin. Greatest skull opening is the nasoantorbitale window that is 9.5 cm long and 3 cm high and thus occupies about a quarter of the length of the skull. A groove that starts just behind the front edge of nasoantorbitalen window is probably the suture between premaxilla and maxilla, and shows that the premaxilla is only part of the upper edge of the skull opening, a feature of advanced pterosaurs. The sides of the skull are formed mainly by the maxilla.

The mouth is covered with numerous sharp teeth. The person sitting in the front part of the jaw teeth are directed especially long and forward. The second, third and fourth tooth in the upper jaw and the first to third in the Under Delivery sticking out at the jaw is closed on the upper or lower edge of the jaw. The sixth tooth is conspicuously less than the fifth and seventh. On the skull a helmet-shaped ridge that rises almost vertically above the eyes and is rounded at the top rises. A Prämaxillar comb is missing.

Let the morphology of the skull and coprolites ( fossilized feces ) that have been found with the holotype specimen and contain fish bones and scales, suggest that Guidraco fed on fish.

System

Guidraco is close related to Ludodactylus from the Brazilian Crato Formation, a layer member of the Santana Formation. Together they form a clade that is closely related to the Istiodactylidae and Anhangueridae. The possible relationships shows the following cladogram.

Nyctosaurus

Nemicolopterus

Dsungaripterus; Tapejaridae & Azhdarchidae

Pteranodon

Istiodactylidae

Tropeognathus

Anhanguera

Ludodactylus

Guidraco