re: Pterosaur palates in the anatomical record

[David Peters <davidpeters@att.net>]

Attila Osi et al., “New Interpretation of the Palate of Pterosaurs,”
The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and
Evolutionary Biology 293, no. 2 (2010): 243-258.

Abstract:

On the basis of a new, three-dimensionally preserved specimen of the
Early Jurassic pterosaur Dorygnathus banthensis we present a
reinterpretation of the pterosaur palate. The hard palate is formed by
the extensive palatal plate of the maxilla and not by the palatine as
has been generally reconstructed. etc.

>

Good to hear this confirmation, but this revelation is from ten years ago in 
Peters 2000b, the Rivista Prolacertiform paper.

>

The longitudinally elongate and
dorsoventrally flat palatine in Dorygnathus is an isolated bone caudal
to the palatal plate of the maxilla and morphologically and
topographically it resembles that of crocodilians and birds,
respectively.

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Maybe not.

The palatine and ectopterygoid, primitively separated in Macrocnemus and 
Tanystropheus, were fused into an ectopalatine in higher fenestrasaurs 
including pterosaurs. I see nothing in the abstract about the ectopterygoid or 
the vomers. I'm looking forward to reading the paper. Hopefully these two 
paired bones were not just forgotten.

>

This exceptional Dorygnathus specimen also
shows a hitherto unknown pair of fenestrae situated at the palatal
contact of the premaxilla-maxilla and might represent the aperture for
the vomeronasal organ.

> 

Nice.

David Peters
St. Louis