Fossil Record 23(2): 191-196, doi: 10.5194/fr-23-191-2020
A new wing skeleton of Forfexopterus (Pterosauria: Ctenochasmatidae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota reveals a developmental variation
Chang-Fu Zhou‡, Jiahao Wang, Ziheng Zhu‡ Shandong University of Science and Technology, China
© Chang-Fu Zhou, Jiahao Wang, Ziheng Zhu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Zhou C-F, Wang J, Zhu Z (2020) A new wing skeleton of Forfexopterus (Pterosauria: Ctenochasmatidae) from the Early Cretaceous Jehol Biota reveals a developmental variation. Fossil Record 23(2): 191-196. https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-23-191-2020 |  |
Abstract
In the Jehol Biota, the filter-feeding ctenochasmatid pterosaurs flourishedwith a high biodiversity. Here, we report a new wing skeleton of thectenochasmatid Forfexopterus from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation in Jianchang,western Liaoning, China. The specimen exhibits the sole autapomorphy, thefirst wing phalanx shorter than the second and longer than the third.Interestingly, it exhibits a skeletal maturity with co-ossified elements, but itis only about 75 % the size of the immature holotype. This discrepancyreveals developmental variation of Forfexopterus, but its relationship with sexualdimorphism needs to be certain by more available material.