Cascocauda
Name:
Cascocauda
(ancient tail).
Phonetic: Cas-o-caw-dah.
Named By: Zixiao Yang, Michael J. Benton,
David W. E. Hone, Xing Xu, Maria E. Mcnamara &
Baoyu Jiang - 2022.
Classification: Chordata, Pterosauria,
Anurognathidae, Batrachognathinae.
Species: C. rong (type).
Diet: Insectivore?
Size: Holotype wingspan 434 millimetres,
though this is a juvenile, and hence not fully grown.
Known locations: China, Hebei Province -
Tiaojishan Formation.
Time period: Middle Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Almost complete juvenile
individual, featuring preservation of pycnofibres.
Cascocauda
is
genus of anurognathid pterosaur
that lived in South East Asia during
the middle Jurassic. Cascocauda was similar to
other anurognathid
pterosaurs in that it had a squat body and broad head with large eyes.
Analysis of the holotype, shows that Cascocauda
also had a fairly
thick covering of pycnofibres, but some of these on Cascocauda
are
different to some with have seen on other pterosaurs. While many of
the pycnofibres are fairly simple with gentle curves, other
pycnofibres seem to have developed branching. This makes some of the
pycnofibres on Cascocauda more similar to some of
the primitive feather
structures seen on some theropod dinosaurs, something that may be a
matter of convergent evolution.
The
describing authors of
Cascocauda also analysed what seem to have been
melanosomes. This
study suggested that in life Cascocauda may have
had a reddish-ginger
colouration. Furthermore, the holotype individual of Cascocauda
was
still a juvenile when it died. It is not yet fully known how big
Cascocauda grew, or how the body developed and
altered as it reached
adulthood, if at all.
Further reading
- Allometric analysis sheds
light on the systematics and ontogeny of anurognathid pterosaurs. -
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology - Zixiao Yang, Michael J.
Benton, David W. E. Hone, Xing Xu, Maria E. Mcnamara
& Baoyu Jiang - 2022.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |
 |