Quetzalcoatlus lawsoni (formerly Quetzalcoatlus sp.) Described!

[danmalcolm]

 Open access paper describing Quetzalcoatlus! Fair warning, it's a monster paper.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2021.1907587

[Dinoxels]

Is this the Hell Creek Quetz?

[Faelrin]

Good to see a proper description of it after all this time! I'll have to take a look at it when the brain is feeling up for it.

[Sim]

It's good it finally got a name!

Is this the Hell Creek Quetz?

Quetzalcoatlus is not known from Hell Creek.

[Fembrogon]

IIRC, the azhdarchid remains from Hell Creek are still awaiting full description.

This is awesome news, though! I saw the new skeletal on Discord and was totally surprised. It's great to see this classic animal finally get the scientific covering it deserves.
(now to actually read the paper......................)

[danmalcolm]

https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/810469

Updated skeletal. The torso seems longer than I remember Mark Witton estimating it at. I think he said the largest azhdarchid torsos were roughly 70cm long. Which is not huge.

[ZoPteryx]

So nice to finally have Q. sp. fully described!  And a bit of an awkward naming situation with the stout-billed Javelina taxon...

Darren Naish has a good write-up over on TetZoo:
https://tetzoo.com/blog/2021/12/8/the-quetz-monograph-lives