Name:
Muzquizopteryx
(Múzquiz wing).
Phonetic: Muz-kwee-op-teh-riks.
Named By: Frey, Buchy, Stinnesbeck, González
& di Stefano. - 2006.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Pterosauria,
Pterodactyloidea, Pteranodontia, Nyctosauridae.
Species: M. coahuilensis (type).
Type: Presumed piscivore.
Size: 2 meter wingspan.
Known locations: Mexico, Coahuila.
Time period: Coniacian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Almost complete skeleton
although only the snout and lower jaw are missing, with only the upper
cranium preserved. The holotype also has soft tissue impressions.
Muzquizopteryx is placed in the same pterosaur family as Nyctosaurus although it lacks the formers highly elaborate head crest. With a two meter wingspan, Muzquizopteryx is small for a nyctosaurid.
Further reading
- A brick in a wall: the first nyctosaurid pterosaur from the Conacian
of NE Mexico and its impact on the pterosaurian wing anatomy. - E.
Frey, M. C. Buchy, W. Stinnesbeck, A. H. González-González & A.
Di Stefano - 2004.
- Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis n. g., n. sp., a
nyctosaurid pterosaur
with soft tissue preservation from the Coniacian (Late Cretaceous) of
northeast Mexico (Coahuila). - Oryctos 6:19-39. - E. Frey, M.-C. Buchy,
W. Stinnesbeck, A. González González & A. Stefano - 2006.
- A new specimen of nyctosaurid pterosaur, cf. Muzquizopteryx sp. from
the Late Cretaceous of northeast Mexico. - Revista Mexicana de Ciencias
Geológicas 29(1): 131–139. - Eberhard Frey, Ross A. Elgin, Wolfgang
Stinnesbeck, José Manuel Padilla-Gutiérrez, Christina Ifrim, Samuel
Giersch & Arturo H. González-González - 2012.