New species of Australian pterosaur described, largest so far

[Psittacoraptor]

For some reason, this is popping up on many regular news sites.

According to the authors, the fossil record of pterosaurs in Australia is poor - Thapunngaka shawi from the Lower Cretaceous is only the fourth named pterosaur found in Australia. It is the largest thus far, with an estimated wing span of 7 m. It's a very incomplete fossil but interesting nonetheless. Paper here (free access):

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2021.1946068

and the news page of the university (with the usual hyperbole - "fearsome dragon", "savage beast" )

https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2021/07/researchers-find-fearsome-dragon%E2%80%99-soared-over-outback-queensland

[ITdactyl]

'A bit funny that most of the articles are using this stock image. It seems no artist was contacted in producing a life reconstruction.


Size comparison between "Spear mouth" and other Australian pterosaurs.


Tom Parker shared this reconstruction on Twitter; highlighting the fossils of these animals. I wonder how long these 3 will be considered separate species.

[austrosaurus]

Tom Parker shared this reconstruction on Twitter; highlighting the fossils of these animals. I wonder how long these 3 will be considered separate species.

Ferrodraco at least is a distinct genus given it's ~20 million years younger than the other two, but there's practically no overlap between Mythunga and Thapunngaka. The three species do clade together in the cladistic analysis published in this paper, and Ferrodraco & Mythunga have been sister species in the last few papers published.

[Halichoeres]

Cool, thanks for posting. I always like to see new pterosaur material, even if it's pretty busted up.