Cryodrakon
Name:
Cryodrakon
(Cold dragon).
Phonetic: Kry-oh-dray-kon.
Named By: D. Hone, M. Habib & F.
Therrien - 2019.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea, Azdharchidae.
Species: C. boreas (type).
Diet: Uncertain.
Size: Uncertain due to lack of remains, but
largest fossils suggest an upper wingspan approaching 10 meters
across.
Known locations: Canada - Dinosaur park
Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial remains
of several individuals including juveniles and adults.
Among
the pterosaurs
Quetzalcoatlus
is usually treated as one of if not the
largest known pterosaur, and so for a long time any large pterosaur
bones of the azdharchid line (which Quetzalcoatlus
belongs to),
were usually attributed to the genus. These included the growing
numbers of large azdharchid pterosaur bones that were being found
within the Dinosaur Park Formation of Canada. However, as more of
these bones were found and looked at more closely it was realised that
while they belong to a large azdharchid pterosaur, they actually
represented a whole new genus. In 2019 these fossils were used to
establish the pterosaur genus Cryodrakon.
As
mentioned, Cryodrakon was a large pterosaur of the
azdharchid line.
In fact Cryodrakon seems to have been one of the
largest pterosaurs so
far known, with larger fossils of Cryodrakon
suggesting that larger
adults could have had wingspans approaching ten meters across. This
would make Cryodrakon only a little bit smaller
than Quetzalcoatlus,
and larger than most other pterosaurs.
Further reading
- Cryodrakon boreas,
gen. et sp. nov., a Late Cretaceous Canadian azhdarchid
pterosaur. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 39 (3):
e1649681. - D. Hone, M. Habib & F. Therrien -
2019.
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