Hamipterus tianshanensis is an extinct genus of pteranodontoid pterosaur that lived in northwestern China during the Early Cretaceous period.
Description[]
The wingspan of the individuals described in 2014 ranged from 1.5–3.5 meters.
The describing authors indicated some distinguishing traits, all of them autapomorphies, unique derived characters. The dentary, the front bone of the lower jaw, has a hook-shaped process. The ascending branch of the jugal bone, running to the lacrimal bone, is thin, inclined to the front, and expanded at the top. The central supraoccipital of the top rear skull bears a well-developed crest. The humerus is perforated by a pneumatic foramen near the base of the deltopectoral crest. The outer lower carpal bone of the wrist has a spike-shaped process pointing to below.
The young of the pterosaur Hamipterus tianshanensis likely couldn't fly at birth. (Image credit: Zhao Chuang)
In 2006 from the Hami region in Xinjiang, the Shengjinkou Formation, a Konservat-Lagerstätte was reported, in this case lake sediments allowing for an exceptional preservation of fossils. The same year, Qiu Zhanxiang and Wang Banyue started official excavations. Part of the finds consisted of dense concentrations of pterosaur bones, associated with soft tissues and eggs. The site represented a nesting colony that storm floods had covered with mud. Dozens of individuals could be secured from a total that in 2014 was estimated to run into the many hundreds. In 2014, the type species Hamipterus tianshanensis was named and described by Wang Xiaolin, Alexander Kellner, Jiang Shunxing, Wang Qiang.
Several instances of this species eggs and juveniles have been officially identified within presumably this species nesting grounds. This pterosaur is noteworty whereas this species hatchling likely couldn't fly at birth, and were likely not superprecocial.
References[]
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/science/pterosaur-eggs.html
- https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-pterosaur-eggs-help-reveal-the-early-life-of-flying-reptiles-88266
- https://www.livescience.com/61067-pterosaur-babies-could-not-fly.html
- http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/science-hamipterus-tianshanensis-pterosaur-eggs-china-01973.html
- https://www.mindat.org/taxon-8457380.html
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331903820_On_a_new_crested_pterodactyloid_from_the_Early_Cretaceous_of_the_Iberian_Peninsula_and_the_radiation_of_the_clade_Anhangueria
- https://www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/hamipterus.html
- https://dinosaurpictures.org/Hamipterus-pictures
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/science/pterosaur-eggs.html