New Triassic Pterosaur: Caelestiventus

[ZoPteryx]

Caelestiventus hanseni

"Hansen's Heavenly Wind"

A new Late Triassic dimorphodontid pterosaur from the Late Triassic Nugget Sandstone of Utah.  It's the earliest known dimorphodontid and arid dwelling pterosaur AND one of the largest pterosaurs of the Triassic.  It's 3-dimensionally preserved remains allow for the study of features not normally visible in typical crushed specimens.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/deadthings/2018/08/13/utah-pterosaur/#.W3JboehKjIW

https://svpow.com/2018/08/13/caelestiventus-hanseni-the-new-triassic-pterosaur-from-utah/

The pay-walled paper:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0627-y

[ITdactyl]

Had to look for a video/article that didn't call it a flying dinosaur (though to appeal to the general public, the term "pterodactyl" was still thrown in). 
Welcome grampa Caelestiventus.


https://phys.org/news/2018-08-million-year-pterosaur-built.html

https://www.newsweek.com/pterodactyls-new-species-ancient-flying-reptile-5-foot-wingspan-discovered-1070373

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXXRr8N3YAs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENDUwqmVqEQ


I like the fact that they didn't remove the fossil from the rock matrix (scanned it instead) to protect its integrity. 
The skull in the picture is a mock-up.

[ceratopsian]

It's also worth looking at this blog:

https://svpow.com/2018/08/13/caelestiventus-hanseni-the-new-triassic-pterosaur-from-utah/

It sounds like we can look forward to some exciting research emerging from the Saints and Sinners Quarry.

[ITdactyl]

Thanks for the link @ceratopsian.  Nice to see the SV-POW folks touch on pterosaurs for a change.

I also noticed @ZoPteryx  posted this exact same topic slightly before I did - I propose this thread be merged to his post.

[Ravonium]

Nice discovery, but was it really that hard to find an article that didn't call it a flying dinosaur? Sure, I don't expect non -scientific articles to be 100% accurate , but surely the general public must know by now that pterosaurs aren't dinosaurs?    (I knew that when my age was still a single digit number ).

[Newt]

I heard about this guy on the radio a few minutes ago. The press blitz is going well!

[Halichoeres]

Wow, bad luck that you and ITdactyl posted about this great find less than 30 seconds apart (http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=7159.0). This has some useful links, perhaps the topics should be merged?

[ZoPteryx]

Wow, bad luck that you and ITdactyl posted about this great find less than 30 seconds apart (http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=7159.0). This has some useful links, perhaps the topics should be merged?

Noted.  Perhaps @dinotoyforum could merge the two. 

[DinoToyForum]

Topics merged.