Pterosaur of the week!!! Name: Sordes pilosus Name Meaning: Hairy filth First Described: 1971 Described By: Sharov Classification: Pterosauria, Breviquartossa Sordes is famous due to its rather unflattering name. However, this isn’t the nicest name for this unassuming little pterosaur. Sordes was from the Late Jurassic period, in the Kimmeridgian stage, from about 155 million years ago. It was discovered in the Karabastau Svita of Kazakhstan. It was especially remarkable due to the impression of hairlike structures on its body. Specifically, it had longer “pycnofibres” at the far part of the wing and and shorter on the animal’s body. This fur has been hypothesized to be all sorts of structures, but the latest theorization is that it’s closer in structure to feathers than to mammalian fur. This helps the hypothesis that feathers/quills/protofeathers (and similar structures) are actually a trait of all of Archosauria, as emphasized by the genes for protofeathers found in crocodiles and feathers found on multiple clades of dinosaurs, rather than just unique to Theropoda and Aves. Thus, it is reasonable to assume not only are pterosaurs probably endothermic, but also that much of the group had pycnofibres on their body. Sordes had large teeth in the front of its jaw to aid it in capturing prey, and then smaller teeth in the back of the jaw to crush food. This allowed Sordes to catch more difficult prey, such as invertebrates with tough exoskeletons, and slippery amphibians. Sordes has been placed as a more basal pterosaur than originally assigned, due to its shorter jaws and longer tail. Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterosaur#Pycnofibres prehistoric-wildlife/species/s/sordes.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sordes
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:05:27 +0000
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