The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

A new pterodactyloid pterosaur with a unique filter‑feeding apparatus from the Late Jurassic of Germany

A new pterodactyloid pterosaur with a unique filter‑feeding apparatus from the Late Jurassic of Germany
A new pterodactyloid pterosaur with a unique filter‑feeding apparatus from the Late Jurassic of Germany
A new long-legged, spatula-beaked, filter-feeding pterodactyloid pterosaur from Upper Jurassic plattenkalk limestones at Wattendorf, Bavaria, Southern Germany, is remarkable for its completeness, unusual dentition and hints of the preservation of soft tissues, including wing membranes. The fully articulated specimen displays both jaws each side with over one hundred sub-parallel-sided teeth with a small, slightly hooked expansion at the crown tip. There are at least 480 teeth in total. The tip of the rostrum widens to a spatula-like, laterally concave structure with teeth only along its lateral margins. The straight anterior margin is devoid of teeth allowing plankton-rich water to stream in, while the teeth interdigitate forming a fine mesh trap. A slightly up swept rostrum assisted filtering by probable pulsating movements of the long neck, while wading or swimming through shallow water.
Ctenochasmatidae, Filter-feeding, Germany, Jurassic, Lagerstätte, Pterosauria
0031-0220
383-424
Martill, David
af9d62c2-64f7-43bc-8d54-d21c26dc0b90
Frey, Eberhard
342e9058-8b46-4e60-a836-dd3317461f4a
Tischlinger, Helmut
ec0dc8b7-7cca-4b95-a7d3-058333ba3519
Mäuser, Matthias
74cb76ce-da68-44a8-a4cf-98598d8d7445
Rivera-Sylva, Héctor
6492d559-5f23-4b4b-8498-d96497997d1c
Vidovic, Steven
abba74b7-4c91-4f08-b8f1-4d9e836a43e4
Martill, David
af9d62c2-64f7-43bc-8d54-d21c26dc0b90
Frey, Eberhard
342e9058-8b46-4e60-a836-dd3317461f4a
Tischlinger, Helmut
ec0dc8b7-7cca-4b95-a7d3-058333ba3519
Mäuser, Matthias
74cb76ce-da68-44a8-a4cf-98598d8d7445
Rivera-Sylva, Héctor
6492d559-5f23-4b4b-8498-d96497997d1c
Vidovic, Steven
abba74b7-4c91-4f08-b8f1-4d9e836a43e4

Martill, David, Frey, Eberhard, Tischlinger, Helmut, Mäuser, Matthias, Rivera-Sylva, Héctor and Vidovic, Steven (2023) A new pterodactyloid pterosaur with a unique filter‑feeding apparatus from the Late Jurassic of Germany. Palaontologische Zeitschrift, 97 (2), 383-424. (doi:10.1007/s12542-022-00644-4).

Record type: Article

Abstract

A new long-legged, spatula-beaked, filter-feeding pterodactyloid pterosaur from Upper Jurassic plattenkalk limestones at Wattendorf, Bavaria, Southern Germany, is remarkable for its completeness, unusual dentition and hints of the preservation of soft tissues, including wing membranes. The fully articulated specimen displays both jaws each side with over one hundred sub-parallel-sided teeth with a small, slightly hooked expansion at the crown tip. There are at least 480 teeth in total. The tip of the rostrum widens to a spatula-like, laterally concave structure with teeth only along its lateral margins. The straight anterior margin is devoid of teeth allowing plankton-rich water to stream in, while the teeth interdigitate forming a fine mesh trap. A slightly up swept rostrum assisted filtering by probable pulsating movements of the long neck, while wading or swimming through shallow water.

Text
Martill et al. 2023 Balaenognathus maeuseri - Version of Record
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (46MB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 13 October 2022
Published date: 1 June 2023
Additional Information: Funding Information: We are especially grateful to Helmut Schorr, director of Andreas Schorr GmbH & Co. KG, Dolomit- und Kalkwerk, Baunach, for providing the opportunity to describe the new pterosaur, for the excavation permit in the Wattendorf quarry and for technical support. We are happy to acknowledge the hard work of the voluntary excavation team, and especially credit Markus Popp, Bamberg, through whose attention the first fragments of the pterosaur were discovered in the debris of the quarry. We particularly thank our highly skilled preparators Pino Völkl-Costantini and Paul Völkl, Dollnstein, who did an extraordinary job in the preparation of this difficult specimen. We sincerely apologise if we have omitted anyone. This manuscript was greatly improved by our two referees, Chris Bennett, Hays (KS,) and Jordan Bestwick, Birmingham (UK), both of whom made some excellent suggestions that have added significantly to the paper. RIP Matthias Mäuser: Our friend and colleague Matthias sadly passed away during the final write up of this paper, and likely the names of some who helped with this exciting project have passed with him. Matthias was more than just the director of the Naturkunde-Museum Bamberg, he lived for it. He organized the cooperation with Andreas Schorr GmbH and acquired many significant specimens from the Wattendorf quarries and made them available for science. He was a friendly and warm-hearted colleague of a kind that can be scarcely found. In order to preserve his memory, we name the pterosaur described herein in his honour. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).
Keywords: Ctenochasmatidae, Filter-feeding, Germany, Jurassic, Lagerstätte, Pterosauria

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 473551
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/473551
ISSN: 0031-0220
PURE UUID: 71973f14-c356-4978-a4b3-1718a5d7108f
ORCID for Steven Vidovic: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-4726-8018

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 23 Jan 2023 17:47
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:53

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: David Martill
Author: Eberhard Frey
Author: Helmut Tischlinger
Author: Matthias Mäuser
Author: Héctor Rivera-Sylva
Author: Steven Vidovic ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×