''Araripesaurus'' is a genus a pterosaur belonging to the suborder Pterodactyloidea, it was discovered in the Romualdo Formation of the Santana Group in northeastern Brazil, which dates back to the

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

and Albian of the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

. The type species is ''A. castilhoi''.

Discovery and naming

The genus was named in 1971 by Brazilian paleontologist

Llewellyn Ivor Price Llewellyn Ivor Price (October 9, 1905 – June 9, 1980) was one of the first Brazilian paleontologists. His work contributed not only to the development of Brazilian but also to global paleontology. He collected '' Staurikosaurus'', the first ...

. The type species is ''Araripesaurus castilhoi''. The genus name refers to the

Araripe Plateau The Chapada do Araripe, also known as the Serra do Araripe, is a '' chapada'' (plateau) in northeastern Brazil. The chapada forms the boundary of Ceará and Pernambuco states, and forms the watershed between the Jaguaribe River of Ceará, which flo ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honors the collector Moacir Marques de Castilho, who in 1966 donated the chalk nodule containing the fossil. The holotype, DNPM (DGM 529-R), consists of a partial wing, including distal fragments of the radius and ulna,

carpals The carpal bones are the eight small bones that make up the wrist (or carpus) that connects the hand to the forearm. The term "carpus" is derived from the Latin carpus and the Greek καρπός (karpós), meaning "wrist". In human anatomy, the ...

, all metacarpals and several digits. The specimen was a subadult. Its wingspan was estimated at . Two other possible specimens are known; both consist of wing fragments and are roughly a third larger than the holotype, and were referred to the genus by Price. In 1985 Peter Wellnhofer has named a second species, ''Araripesaurus santanae''; this and two unnamed ''Araripesaurus'' sp. indicated by Wellhofer, were in 1990 by Kellner moved to ''Anhanguera'' as ''Anhanguera santanae''.

Classification

Price placed ''Araripesaurus'' in the Ornithocheiridae.Price, L.L., 1971, "A Presença de Pterosauria no Cretáceo Inferior da Chapada do Araripe, Brasil", ''Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências'', 43: 451-461 ''Araripesaurus'' was the first pterosaur known from the Santana Formation. Later, other species were named from more complete remains and this raised the question whether they could be identical to ''Araripesaurus''. In 1991 researcher Alexander Kellner concluded that ''Araripesaurus'' was identical to '' Santanadactylus'' and that due to a lack of distinguishing features it could only be more generally classified as a pterodactyloid. In 2000 Kellner reassessed the genus and concluded that precisely because of such a lack of autapomorphies (unique characters), it could not be synonymized with ''Santanadactylus'' and gave its position after a cladistic analysis as close to Anhangueridae, more derived than ''

Istiodactylus ''Istiodactylus'' is a genus of pterosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 120 million years ago. The first fossil was discovered on the English Isle of Wight in 1887, and in 1901 became the holotype specimen of a new species ...

''. Kellner also indicated that ''Araripesaurus'' resembled '' Anhanguera piscator'' in morphology, albeit considerably smaller.

References

{{Portal bar, Paleontology, Cretaceous, Brazil Pteranodontoids Albian life Aptian life Early Cretaceous pterosaurs of South America Cretaceous Brazil Fossils of Brazil Romualdo Formation Fossil taxa described in 1971

Discovery and naming

Classification

See also

References