First complete pterosaur from the Afro-Arabian continent: insight into pterodactyloid diversity.

ABSTRACT: Despite being known from every continent, the geological record of pterosaurs, the first group of vertebrates to develop powered flight, is very uneven, with only a few deposits accounting for the vast majority of specimens and almost half of the taxonomic diversity. Among the regions that stand out for the greatest gaps of knowledge regarding these flying reptiles, is the Afro-Arabian continent, which has yielded only a small number of very fragmentary and incomplete materials. Here we fill part of that gap and report on the most complete pterosaur recovered from this continent, more specifically from the Late Cretaceous (~95 mya) Hjoûla Lagerstätte of Lebanon. This deposit is known since the Middle Ages for the exquisitely preserved fishes and invertebrates, but not for tetrapods, which

SUBMITTER: Kellner AWA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6884559 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature