Name:
Noripterus
(lake wing).
Phonetic: No-rip-teh-rus.
Named By: Yang Zhongjian (C.C. Young) - 1973.
Synonyms: Phobetor parvus.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Pterosauria,
Pterodactyloidea, Dsungaripteroidea, Dsungaripteridae.
Species: N. complicidens (type),
N. parvus.
Type: Shellfish eater.
Size: 1.5 meter wingspan, 20 centimetre skull. The
new attributation of further remains means that the total wingspan may
in fact approach 4 meters.
Known locations: China, Xinjiang - Lianmuqin
Formation. Mongolia - Tsagaantsav Svita.
Time period: Early Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Many individual specimens,
incluiding an almost complete skeleton. New fossil material now
attributed to Noripterus means that the early specimens may in fact
represent juveniles.
Noripterus
appears to have been a scaled down version of the pterosaur
Dsungaripterus
complete
with a more gracile build. However the discovery of a leg bone that was
attributed to the new genus Phobetor in 1982 now
casts doubts upon
this. When studied again, along with further material attributed to
Phobetor in 2009, the material was found to be
identical to Noripterus,
just larger, leading to Phobetor to be reclassed as
a junior synonym of
Noripterus. The inclusion of the Phobetor
remains has since increased
size estimates of Noripterus to a four meter
Wingspan.
Like
Dsungaripterus, Noripterus had a
specialised set of jaws that
allowed it to dig out and eat shellfish. A crest was also present on
top of the snout.
Further reading
- [Pterosaurs from Wuerho].
Reports of Paleontological Expedition to Sinkiang (II): Pterosaurian
Fauna from Wuerho, Sinkiang. - Memoirs of the Institute of Vertebrate
Paleontology and Paleoanthropology Academia Sinica 11:18-35. - C.-C.
Young - 1973.
- [A pterodactyl from the Lower Cretaceous of
Mongolia]. - Paleontologicheskii Zhurnal 1982(4):104-108. - N. N.
Bakhurina - 1982.
- New material of dsungaripterid pterosaurs
(Pterosauria: Pterodactyloidea) from western Mongolia and its
palaeoecological implications. - Geological Magazine, 146(5): 690-700.
- J. L�, Y. Azuma, Z. Dong, R. Barsbold, Y. Kobayashi & Y.-N. Lee -
2009.