Life restoration of a group of giant azhdarchids, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, foraging on a Cretaceous fern prairie. Image credit: Mark Witton / Darren Naish.
SciNews has a story about the discovery of a new species of quetzalcoatline azhdarchid pterosaur in Japan. The animal has been named Nipponopterus mifunensis. It lived about 90 million years ago in what is now the Japanese island of Kyushu. The quetzalcoatline azhdarchids include the largest flying animals ever known, with up to 30+ foot wingspans - Quetzalcoatlus northropi, Arambourgiania philadelphiae, and Hatzegopteryx thambema. Nipponopterus mifunensis is not thought to be that large and was described from just a few bones. See the description in the paper "Reassessment of an azhdarchid pterosaur specimen from the Mifune Group, Upper Cretaceous of Japan" in the journal Cretaceous Research.
“Nipponopterus mifunensis represents the first nominal species of pterosaur from Japan,” the researchers said.
“This new species shows numerous quetzalcoatline features, being strikingly similar to the unnamed Burkhant azhdarchid from the Turonian-Coniacian of Mongolia.”
A partial sixth cervical vertebra of Nipponopterus mifunensis came from outcrops of the Mifune Group near the Amagimi dam, Mifune town, Kumamoto prefecture, on the Japanese island of Kyushu.
“The specimen was found within the middle part of the Upper Formation of the Mifune Group, in a coarse lens-shaped sandstone bed, 30 cm (12 inches) in thickness and placed between two tuff layers,” the scientists said.
