A new pterosaur with mosaic characters of basal and pterodactyloid pterosauria from the Upper Kimmeridgian of Painten (Upper Palatinate, Germany)

摘要

Recent discoveries of anatomically aberrant pterosaurs from the Middle-Late Jurassic boundary in northeast China bridge a morphological gap between basal pterosaurs and Pterodactyloidea and have greatly improved our understanding of the evolution of pterosaurs. These fascinating new pterosaurs have been referred to the family Wukongopteridae. Here we report on a remarkably well preserved skeleton of a new pterosaur from Late Jurassic lithographic limestones near the market town of Painten in the Southern Franconian Alb of Bavaria, Germany. The specimen comes from the Latest Kimmeridgian of the Solnhofen Archipelago (Painten Formation, Ulmense Subzone) and was discovered during scientific excavations by a private research institute in 2011. Documentation of the stratigraphic horizon, the collection of the specimen and its preparation were conducted to a high professional standard. Therefore, artificial inserts and other artefacts due to preparation can be positively excluded. For reasons of nomenclatural etiquette no scientific name is assigned to the specimen described here. We refer to the specimen colloquially as the "Painten pro-pterodactyloid".