Hairy Museum of Natural History

• 
• A quick vector sketch of the head of
  Raeticodactylus filisurensis

• New pterosaur: Raeticodactylus filisurensis
• Name means: (Wing) Finger from the village of Filisur, in Raetia (the old name for the Swiss Canton Grisons, where it was found)
• Relations: Basal pterosaur
• Location: Eastern Switzerland
• Age: Late Triassic, ~203,000,000 years ago
• Material: Nearly complete skull, partial postcrania
• Wingspan: 135cm (~4.5 feet)
• Info: The oldest known pterosaur fossils come from late in the Triassic period, when this finger-winged group of reptiles first took to the skies. Newly-described Raeticodactylus adds to the handful of currently known Triassic pterosaurs. Raeticodactylus sported a unique crest above its nose, a deeply-keeled lower jaw, and a unique combination of teeth—fangs at the front of its mouth with wrinkled enamel on the inside, and crunching teeth further back in its jaws tipped with three to five cusps. Its limbs were long and thin compared to its contemporaries, giving it about twice the wingspan of the most famous Triassic pterosaur, Eudimorphodon ranzii. And, oddly enough, the head of its femur is offset 90° from the shaft, suggesting an upright stance more similar to that of dinosaurs than other pterosaurs.
• Reference: Stecher, R. 2008. A new Triassic pterosaur from Switzerland (Central Austroalpine, Grisons), Raeticodactylus filisurensis gen. et sp. nov. Swiss Journal of Geosciences doi: 10.1007/s00015-008-1252-6.
• Web coverage:
  • Laelaps
  • When Pigs Fly Returns 1 & 2
  • David Hone’s Blog
  • microecos

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Recent Discoveries, Reptiles, Triassic.