A skeleton from the Middle Jurassic of Scotland illuminates an earlier origin of large pterosaurs - PubMed

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• PMID: 35196508
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.01.073

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A skeleton from the Middle Jurassic of Scotland illuminates an earlier origin of large pterosaurs

Natalia Jagielska et al. Curr Biol. 2022.

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Abstract

Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve flight^1,2 and include the largest flying animals in Earth history.^3,4 While some of the last-surviving species were the size of airplanes, pterosaurs were long thought to be restricted to small body sizes (wingspans ca. <1.8-1.6 m) from their Triassic origins through the Jurassic, before increasing in size when derived long-skulled and short-tailed pterodactyloids lived alongside a diversity of birds in the Cretaceous.⁵ We report a new spectacularly preserved three-dimensional skeleton from the Middle Jurassic of Scotland, which we assign to a new genus and species: Dearc sgiathanach gen. et sp. nov. Its wingspan is estimated at >2.5 m, and bone histology shows it was a juvenile-subadult still actively growing when it died, making it the largest known Jurassic pterosaur represented by a well-preserved skeleton. A review of fragmentary specimens from the Middle Jurassic of England demonstrates that a diversity of pterosaurs was capable of reaching larger sizes at this time but have hitherto been concealed by a poor fossil record. Phylogenetic analysis places D. sgiathanach in a clade of basal long-tailed non-monofenestratan pterosaurs, in a subclade of larger-bodied species (Angustinaripterini) with elongate skulls convergent in some aspects with pterodactyloids.⁶ Far from a static prologue to the Cretaceous, the Middle Jurassic was a key interval in pterosaur evolution, in which some non-pterodactyloids diversified and experimented with larger sizes, concurrent with or perhaps earlier than the origin of birds. VIDEO ABSTRACT.

Keywords: Isle of Skye; Jurassic; Scotland; evolution; fossil; histology; paleontology; phylogeny; pterosaur; wingspan.

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests S.L.B. is a member of Current Biology’s advisory board.

Comment in

• Jurassic Dearc.

  Nic Eoin L. Nic Eoin L. Nat Ecol Evol. 2022 May;6(5):493. doi: 10.1038/s41559-022-01719-w. Nat Ecol Evol. 2022. PMID: 35273368 No abstract available.

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