Missing and Unexploited Pterosaur 002
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The slab is roughly 76 cm by 48 cm. It is difficult to determine whether the skeleton is supposed to be
in dorsal or ventral view; however, the morphology of the humerus toward the right side of the slab looks
like that of a right humerus in dorsal view and that on the left might be a left humerus in ventral view,
so I will assume the skeleton is in dorsal view with the right wing and leg to the right side of the slab.
The skull morphology identifies this as Sinopterus dongi. The color and quality of the "bone" reminds
me strongly of auto body glazing compound, and I very much doubt this is a real pterosaur specimen.
Skull length is roughly 12.5 cm long. Notice the rather fanciful teeth that seem to be penciled in.
Close up view showing the posterior part of the neck and the anterior trunk. It looks as though the
neck consists of more or less normal vertebrae through C7, but whatever is behind it does not
look like a vertebra. Note the deltopectoral crest of what seems to be the left humerus.
I can not make out anything that looks like a pterosaur element [or even a vertebrate element] between the humeri and the femora.
Where are ribs? vertebrae? scapulocoracoids?
Close up of the hindlimbs. the femora do not show any curvature or taper, no evidence of tarsals on
the right [hard to tell about the left], and there does not seem to be any separation of the metatarsi
into individual metatarsals. Note that there is trace of a tail.
Close up of the left humerus, ulna?, mc IV, and proximal wp1. What I have called an ulna, actually
looks more like a wing metacarpal, but if so, then where is the antebrachium? Note that there is no
evidence of a carpus, pteroid, or mc I-III.
Here we see digits I-III on the left that were not visible in the images above. Note that they seem
to be of uniform length, which is unusual for pterosaurs. The proximal end of the wp1 does not
look like a proximal wp1.
Close up of the right humerus, ulna?, mc IV, digits I-III, wp1, and part of wp2. All of the bones except
the humerus are rather featureless. Again note that there is no evidence of a carpus, pteroid, or mc I-III.
Close up of WP 1 and 2.
Close up of distal WP 2 through 4. The horizontal line indicates what may be the dividing line between wp3 and 4, but it is hard to tell. Note the length disparities of the right and left wp3 and 4 in the first photo.
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