Versperopterylus: New "Unusual" Anurognathid Pterosaur from China

[ZoPteryx]

Versperopterylus lamadongensis:  A very complete anurognathid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation of China, making it the youngest member of the group.  In addition to it's very complete wings and skeleton, it preserves a "reversed" first toe, suggesting it may have perching habits.  No mention of any preserved soft tissue in the abstract.

Pay-walled OPEN Paper:
http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/specpubgsl/early/2017/09/08/SP455.16.full.pdf

Only image I could find, maybe a little too bat-like...

[E.D.G.E. (PainterRex)]

Wouldn't Anurognathus be the youngest member?

[BlueKrono]

Anurognathans are so freakin' cool.

[Libraraptor]

Cool Animal!

[Reptilia]

Why would it be unusual? Doesn't look much different than Anurognathus itself.

[ZoPteryx]

Wouldn't Anurognathus be the youngest member?

Youngest as in geologically most recent.  Anurognathus, being from the Late Jurassic rather than the Early Cretaceous, would be older, though not the oldest of the group.

Why would it be unusual? Doesn't look much different than Anurognathus itself.

The reversed first toe is a condition never before reported in a pterosaur.

[ZoPteryx]

Couple quick notes.  Apparently it's spelled Versperopterylus.  Pretty weird spelling, I've never seen that Latin word spelled with an R at the beginning.  Even Wikipedia is confused about it!

And the paper is now open access!  I've linked it in the first post.

And finally, as pointed out on the DML, the "reversed" first toe could easily be a taphonomic artifact, as has been the case in some theropod fossils.

[Halichoeres]

Wouldn't Anurognathus be the youngest member?

This is from the Early Cretaceous; Anurognathus was Jurassic. This is definitely younger.

Versperopterylus is a simple typo on the part of the authors, which is clear from the etymology they give in the paper, "Latin for dusk" [though I think 'evening' is a better translation anyway]. It's a really ugly typo, and maybe someday they'll get an emendation through ICZN, but for now, that's the name.

[Halichoeres]

Wikipedia is now claiming that the name has been emended to Vesperopterylus, but the only source it cites is the original paper, which still contains the typo (except in two places detailing some measurements). Anybody know anything about this?

[ZoPteryx]

Wikipedia is now claiming that the name has been emended to Vesperopterylus, but the only source it cites is the original paper, which still contains the typo (except in two places detailing some measurements). Anybody know anything about this?

The paper now has a correction notice under the abstract.  Apparently Vesperopterylus was the intended name all along.  Good thing the authors jumped on this, if someone had published the incorrect name in their paper I think that's the one we'd be stuck with!

http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/early/2017/10/24/SP455.16

Odd, the pdf links aren't working...

[Halichoeres]

Wikipedia is now claiming that the name has been emended to Vesperopterylus, but the only source it cites is the original paper, which still contains the typo (except in two places detailing some measurements). Anybody know anything about this?

The paper now has a correction notice under the abstract.  Apparently Vesperopterylus was the intended name all along.  Good thing the authors jumped on this, if someone had published the incorrect name in their paper I think that's the one we'd be stuck with!

http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/early/2017/10/24/SP455.16

Odd, the pdf links aren't working...

Ah, thanks, not sure how I missed that. Well, glad they got that fixed. I have a lot of sympathy for the authors, who have to learn one language (English) to participate in international science, and another (Latin) to coin names in international science.

[SomeRandomPaleoNerd]

Whoa that critter looks like the bat from hell.