” And whats a lot more remarkable is some of the teeth have a hook on the end, which weve never seen prior to in a pterosaur ever. These small hooks would have been used to catch the small shrimp the pterosaur most likely fed on– ensuring they decreased its throat and werent squeezed in between the teeth.”
The discovery was made accidentally while scientists were excavating a big block of limestone consisting of crocodile bones.
A video describing the discovery of the brand-new pterosaur. Credit: University of Portsmouth
Professor Martill stated: “This was a rather serendipitous find of an unspoiled skeleton with near ideal expression, which suggests the carcass must have been at a very early phase of decay with all joints, including their ligaments, still practical. It needs to have been buried in sediment practically as quickly as it had died.”
The pterosaur comes from a household of pterosaurs called Ctenochasmatidae, which are understood from the limestone in Bavaria, Germany, where this one was also found.
Since the very first pterosaur was described from there in the 18th century, hundreds of remains of these flying reptiles have actually been discovered, making the quarries of the Franconian Jura in Bavaria one of the richest pterosaur regions on the planet.
The bones of Balaenognathus maeuseri found in the piece of limestone. Credit: PalZ
” This pterosaur had teeth in the upper and lower jaw, which are a mirror image of each other. There is one other pterosaur with more teeth– Pterodaustro from Argentina– but it has stubby teeth in its upper jaw and even longer teeth in its lower jaw, so this new specimen is very different from other ctenochasmatids,” Professor Martill added.
The teeth of the brand-new pterosaur recommend an extraordinary feeding mechanism while it waded through water. It would use its spoon-shaped beak to funnel the water and then its teeth to squeeze out excess liquid, leaving victim caught in its mouth.
The animal likely messed around as it waded through shallow lagoons, sucking in small water shrimps and copepods and then filtering them out through its teeth much like ducks and flamingos.
Left: UV close-up of the tooth section at the narrowest point of the funnel. : Tooth preservation shown in the interpretative drawing of an isolated tooth. Credit: PalZ
It has been named Balaenognathus maeuseri. The generic name roughly equated methods whale mouth since of its filtering feeding style. The particular name wants among the co-authors Matthias Mäuser who regretfully died during the writing of the paper.
Professor Martill said: “Matthias was a friendly and warm-hearted associate of a kind that can be hardly found. In order to preserve his memory, we called the pterosaur in his honor.”
Recommendation: “A brand-new pterodactyloid pterosaur with a distinct filter-feeding apparatus from the Late Jurassic of Germany” by David M. Martill, Eberhard Frey, Helmut Tischlinger, Matthias Mäuser, Héctor E. Rivera-Sylva and Steven U. Vidovic, 21 January 2023, PalZ.DOI: 10.1007/ s12542-022-00644-4.
The specimen is presently on display in the Bamberg Natural History Museum.
Left: UV close-up of the tooth area at the narrowest point of the funnel.: Tooth preservation shown in the interpretative illustration of a separated tooth. It has been called Balaenognathus maeuseri.
An artists impression of Balaenognathus maeuseri. Credit: Megan Jacobs, University of Portsmouth
Paleontologists from England, Germany, and Mexico have actually revealed a remarkable brand-new species of pterosaur, identified by an impressive 400 teeth that resemble the prongs of a nit comb. The exceptional fossil was discovered in a German quarry.
Professor David Martill, lead author of the research study, from the University of Portsmouths School of the Environment, Geography and Geosciences, stated: “The almost total skeleton was discovered in an extremely carefully layered limestone that maintains fossils beautifully.
” The jaws of this pterosaur are truly long and lined with little fine, connected teeth, with small spaces in between them like a nit comb. The long jaw is curved upwards like an avocet and at the end it flares out like a spoonbill. There are no teeth at the end of its mouth, but there are teeth all the way along both jaws right to the back of its smile.
” The jaws of this pterosaur are really long and lined with small fine, connected teeth, with small spaces between them like a nit comb. There are no teeth at the end of its mouth, however there are teeth all the method along both jaws right to the back of its smile.