It finally has a name - and the name is Javelinadactylus

[ITdactyl]

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11756-021-00841-7



The fossil that started the trend of reconstructing Quetzalcoatlus with a blunt nose (during the early 90's) has finally been formally described as not being Quetzalcoatlus at all. Welcome Javelinadactylus - a Thalassodromine.

long assumed to be this*:

*a clone of the original Sibbick depiction

...which inspired this Jurassic park toy:


...but turned out to be this*:

*paleoart by the awesome Joschua Knuppe

It takes the disctinction of being (so far) the only North American Thalassodromine. I wonder if the name (and the Thalassodromine classification) will stick - but that's the inherent dynamism in paleontology that we've all come to love.

[Newt]

Neat! If it is a thalassodromine, that's a nice range expansion from their former highly restricted range in Brazil; it was weird that large flying animals would show such strong endemism. Of course it would be lovely to see more of it found, especially the rest of the skull.


Now if "Quetzalcoatlus sp." ever gets a proper description, the Javelina Javelins will be complete!

[ceratopsian]

Sadly the article is paywalled to the tune of nearly £30!

[ITdactyl]

Now if "Quetzalcoatlus sp." ever gets a proper description, the Javelina Javelins will be complete!

@Newt    Javelina Javelins sounds like a sports team I'd support. On that note, Darren Naish made a recent "wink wink nudge nudge" post on Twitter about this topic. Quetz spuh might just see a proper description SOON_TM

@ceratopsian  yeah, I slammed nose-first into that paywall too. That's why I just opted to summarize the Twitter chatter about the paper instead.  That's also the reason why I didn't put this under the News thread - it hasn't been picked up by the news outlets yet (so I don't have any other links to share other than the paper itself).

[Faelrin]

Good to see it has a proper name after all this time.

[ITdactyl]

'just realized that there's now merit to keeping the old Schleich "Quetzalcoatlus" as a placeholder for Javelinadactylus - until another company makes a better figure.

[Halichoeres]

Haven't been able to track down a pdf of this so far.

Just a reminder that when something is paywalled, the authors gain nothing from the purchase. The authors pay the journal, the journal charges subscribers, and the journal tries to charge you with a paywall. When something is open access, it means the authors have paid through the nose to make it accessible. The house (journal publishers) always wins!

[Sim]

It takes the disctinction of being (so far) the only North American Thalassodromine. I wonder if the name (and the Thalassodromine classification) will stick - but that's the inherent dynamism in paleontology that we've all come to love.

What you said in bold seems prescient!  The paper that named Quetzalcoatlus lawsoni also named the Javelinadactylus specimen along with more remains as a new genus and species - Wellnhopterus brevirostris.  It also classifies it as an azhdarchid.  There's been discussion on the Talk page of this Wikipedia page concluding that Wellnhopterus is the correct name even if it's newer than Javelinadactylus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javelina_azhdarchid

A similar naming situation happened with Aoniraptor and Gualicho.  I'm a little unhappy that Wellnhopterus and Gualicho would be the correct names as I prefer the other names for those species.

[VD231991]

It takes the disctinction of being (so far) the only North American Thalassodromine. I wonder if the name (and the Thalassodromine classification) will stick - but that's the inherent dynamism in paleontology that we've all come to love.

What you said in bold seems prescient!  The paper that named Quetzalcoatlus lawsoni also named the Javelinadactylus specimen along with more remains as a new genus and species - Wellnhopterus brevirostris.  It also classifies it as an azhdarchid.  There's been discussion on the Talk page of this Wikipedia page concluding that Wellnhopterus is the correct name even if it's newer than Javelinadactylus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javelina_azhdarchid

A similar naming situation happened with Aoniraptor and Gualicho.  I'm a little unhappy that Wellnhopterus and Gualicho would be the correct names as I prefer the other names for those species.

The paper coining the name Javelinadactylus for TMM 42489-2 has been retracted -- see link here. Hence, Wellnhopterus is the correct name for TMM 42489-2, and I'm glad that the editor for the Biologia journal retracted the Javelinadactylus paper not just because TMM 42489-2 has been named Wellnhopterus but also became Hebert Bruno Campos incorrectly omitted cervicals from the list of material included in the W. brevirostris holotype.

On the other hand, the Aoniraptor-Gualicho matter is a different story, because they're based on different specimens with very little overlapping material. Although a few online commentators regarded Aoniraptor as a junior synonym of Gualicho, Rolando et al. (2020) find Aoniraptor to be a distinct taxon from Gualicho based on morphological differences between the overlapping caudal vertebrae of the holotypes of the two genera.

Rolando, M.A., Marsà, J.G., and Novas, F., 2020. Histology and pneumaticity of Aoniraptor libertatem (Dinosauria, Theropoda), an enigmatic mid-sized megaraptoran from Patagonia. Journal of Anatomy 237 (4): 741–756. doi:10.1111/joa.13225.

[Sim]

Thanks for the update.  Thinking about it now I prefer Gualicho's name to Aoniraptor's, so I don't mind the two being the same if they are.