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Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the extinct clade or order Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous. Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight. Their wings were formed by a membrane of skin, muscle, and other tissues stretching from the ankles to a dramatically lengthened fourth finger.
Quetzalcoatlus is a pterosaur known from the Late Cretaceous period of North America, it was one of the biggest known flying animals of all time. Quetzalcoatlus is a member of the family Azhdarchidae, a family of advanced toothless pterosaurs with unusually long, stiffened necks. Its name comes from the Aztec feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl. The type and only species is Q. northropi.
The Kyzylkum Desert is the 15th largest desert in the world. Its name means Red Sand in Turkic languages. It is located in Central Asia in the doab between the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya, a region historically known as Transoxania or Sogdiana. Today it is divided between Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It covers about 298,000 km2 (115,000 sq mi).
Ichthyornis is an extinct genus of toothed seabird-like ornithuran from the late Cretaceous period of North America. Its fossil remains are known from the chalks of Alberta, Alabama, Kansas, New Mexico, Saskatchewan, and Texas, in strata that were laid down in the Western Interior Seaway during the Turonian through Campanian ages, about 95–83.5 million years ago. Ichthyornis is a common component of the Niobrara Formation fauna, and numerous specimens have been found.
Azhdarchidae is a family of pterosaurs known primarily from the late Cretaceous Period, though an isolated vertebra apparently from an azhdarchid is known from the early Cretaceous as well. Azhdarchids included some of the largest-known flying animals of all time, but smaller cat-size members have also been found. Originally considered a sub-family of Pteranodontidae, Nesov (1984) named the Azhdarchinae to include the pterosaurs Azhdarcho, Quetzalcoatlus, and "Titanopteryx". They were among the last known surviving members of the pterosaurs, and were a rather successful group with a worldwide distribution. By the time of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, most pterosaur families except for the Azhdarchidae disappear from the fossil record, but recent studies indicate a wealth in pterosaurian faunas, including pteranodontids, nyctosaurids, tapejarids and several indeterminate forms. In several analyses, some taxa such as Navajodactylus, Bakonydraco and Montanazhdarcho were moved from Azhdarchidae to other clades.
Azhdarcho is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur from the late Cretaceous Period of the Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan, as well as the Zhirkindek Formation of Kazakhstan. It is known from fragmentary remains including the distinctive, elongated neck vertebrae that characterizes members of the family Azhdarchidae, a family that includes many giant pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlus. The name Azhdarcho comes from the Persian word azhdar (اژدر), a dragon-like creature in Persian mythology. The type species is Azhdarcho lancicollis. The specific epithet lancicollis is derived from the Latin words lancea and collum ("neck").
Kuszholia is the name given to a genus of primitive birds or bird-like dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous. They were possibly coelurosaurs close to the ancestry of birds, although most scientists have considered it an avialan. Fossils were found in the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum desert of Uzbekistan.
Arambourgiania is an extinct genus of azhdarchid pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous period of Jordan, and possibly the United States. Arambourgiania was among the largest members of its family, the Azhdarchidae, and it is also one of the largest flying animals ever known.
Zhyraornis is a genus of prehistoric bird from the late Cretaceous period. Its fossils have been found in Bissekty Formation deposits near Dzharakuduk in the Kyzyl Kum, Uzbekistan. Two species have been assigned to this genus: Zhyraornis kashkarovi and Zhyraornis logunovi. Both are known only from partial pelvic bones (synsacra).
Bennettazhia is a genus of tapejaromorph pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of what is now the Hudspeth Formation of the state of Oregon in the United States. Although originally identified as a species of the pteranodontoid pterosaur Pteranodon, Bennettazhia is now thought to have been a different animal. The type and only species is B. oregonensis.
Bogolubovia is a genus of pterosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Rybushka Formation of Petrovsk, Saratov Oblast, Russia. It is named for Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogolubov, the paleontologist who discovered the remains in 1914. It was in 1991 assigned to the Azhdarchidae. Wellnhofer (1991) however, retained it in the Pteranodontidae. Bogolubov had initially assigned the specimen, consisting of a single partial large cervical vertebra, as a new species of Ornithostoma, O. orientalis. It was later reclassified as a species of Pteranodon, before being assigned its own genus by Lev Nesov and Alexander Yarkov in 1989. The holotype has probably been lost, but other partial remains have been referred to the genus.
Aralazhdarcho is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur from the Santonian to the early Campanian stages of the Late Cretaceous period of Bostobe Svita in Kazakhstan. The type and only known species is Aralazhdarcho bostobensis.
Lenesornis is a genus of enantiornithine birds which lived during the Late Cretaceous about 90 Ma and is known from fossils found in the Bissekty Formation in the Kyzyl Kum, Uzbekistan.
Kizylkumavis is a genus of enantiornithine birds which lived during the Late Cretaceous and is known from fossils found in the Bissekty Formation of the Kyzyl Kum, Uzbekistan.
Explorornis is a genus of Mesozoic birds which lived during the mid-late Turonian stage, around 90 million years ago, in the Bissekty Formation of the Kyzyl Kum, in present-day Uzbekistan.
Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 1986.
Aidachar is an extinct genus of ichthyodectiform teleost ray-finned fish from the Late Cretaceous of Kyzyl Kum, central Asia. It was named by Lev Nesov in 1981. At first, he tentatively described the fossil material as the jaw fragments of a ctenochasmatid pterosaur, but reinterpreted Aidachar as a fish in 1986. The type species is A. paludalis.
Pteranodontoidea is an extinct clade of ornithocheiroid pterosaurs from the Early to Late Cretaceous of Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and South America. It was named by Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner in 1996. In 2003, Kellner defined the clade as a node-based taxon consisting of the last common ancestor of Anhanguera, Pteranodon and all its descendants. The clade Ornithocheiroidea is sometimes considered to be the senior synonym of Pteranodontoidea, however it depends on its definition. Brian Andres in his analyses, converts Ornithocheiroidea using the definition of Kellner (2003) to avoid this synonymy.
Ornithocheiromorpha is a group of pterosaurs within the suborder Pterodactyloidea. Fossil remains of this group date back from the Early to Late Cretaceous periods, around 140 to 92.5 million years ago. Ornithocheiromorphs were discovered worldwide except Antarctica, though most genera were recovered in Europe, Asia and South America. They were the most diverse and successful pterosaurs during the Early Cretaceous, but throughout the Late Cretaceous they were replaced by better adapted and more advanced pterosaur species such the pteranodontids and azhdarchoids. The Ornithocheiromorpha was defined in 2014 by Andres and colleagues, and they made Ornithocheiromorpha the most inclusive clade containing Ornithocheirus, but not Pteranodon.
References
- 1 2 3 Nesov, Lev A. (1981). "[Flying reptiles from the Late Cretaceous of Kyzyl-Kum]". Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal (in Russian). 15: 98–104.
- ↑ Nesov, Lev A. (1986). "[The first finding of the Late Cretaceous bird Ichthyornis in the old world and some other bird bones from the Cretaceous and Paleogene of Middle Asia]". In Potapova, R. L. (ed.). [Ecological and Faunistic Investigations of Birds. Proceedings of the Geological Institute, Leningrad] 147 (in Russian). pp. 31–38.
