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Antarctic pterosaur bone saved from museum fire

Started by Logo7, October 27, 2019, 08:11:40 PM

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Logo7

A pterosaur bone recovered from the ruins of the Museu Nacional in Brazil, which burned down last year, has provided the first evidence that pterosaurs were present in Antarctica during the Cretaceous period. Previously, the only evidence of pterosaurs in Antarctica was a piece of the upper arm bone of a small pterosaur dating back to the Jurassic. The bone, in addition to a second fossil that was housed in a building not damaged by the fire, belongs to either a pteranodontid or azdarchid pterosaur that was found on Vega Island in Antarctica in 2017. These bones, dated to be about 70 million years old, came from a rather large animal, as the bone that survived the fire originated from an animal with a 16-foot wingspan. The existence of a bone originating from a large pterosaur from this stage of the Cretaceous also helps to support the hypothesis that pterosaurs were not slowly dying out during the end of the Cretaceous, as has been commonly assumed. Its existence also suggests that more large pterosaurs may be found in Antarctica in the future. The survival of this bone and this successful scientific study on it confirm that important scientific information can still be gathered from those artifacts that were spared from the horrible tragedy of the museum fire. Although I have not found a paper on this study yet, here is an excellent write-up on this discovery by National Geographic.

Article: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/10/huge-pterosaur-from-antartica-found-in-fire-struck-musuem-brazil/