Abstract

Pterosaurs, flying reptiles that lived during the Mesozoic era, were the first vertebrates to develop powered flight, preceding birds and bats for hundreds of millions of years. Despite being patchy, the pterosaur fossil record extends worldwide, being quite diverse at the Araripe Basin, Brazil. The Romualdo Formation (Aptian-Albian), a Konservat Lagerstätten rich in calcareous concretions, has yielded several of these exceptionally well-preserved, three-dimensional fossils. MN 4727-V, the focus of the present study, consists exclusively of three-dimensionally preserved post-cranial elements, namely: right humerus, proximal portion of right ulna and radius, left scapula, part of the right scapula, right coracoid and proximal portion of the left one, right femur and part of the left one, notarium, dorsal, cervical, sacral and caudal vertebrae, sternum, ribs, pubes, ischia, and illia. The anatomy suggests that MN 4727 - V is a pteranodontoid since it exhibits an enlarged, warped deltopectoral crest and a subtriangular distal articulation of the humerus. The phylogenetic analysis recovered MN 4727-V as an anhanguerid by the combination of the following characters: scapula substantially shorter than the coracoid (sca/co < 0.80), proximal end of the coracoid oval and posterior extension of the sternal articulation. The presence of elliptical-shaped, dorsomedially inclined depressions on the dorsal surface of the prezygapophyses of the preserved cervicals has never been reported for any other anhanguerid, although they might not be diagnostic to MN 4727-V. The tail bears unique middle caudals that exhibit ventral projections, a character previously reported only for Anhanguera piscator (the only other known anhanguerid tail). The wingspan of MN 4727-V, a juvenile individual, was estimated to be about 3.9 meters.