[martin@srv0.ems.ed.ac.uk: Fossil sleuths trace long-lost fragment of giant flying reptile ]

[bz050@freenet.carleton.ca (Ben S. Roesch)]

    ================= Begin forwarded message =================

    From: martin@srv0.ems.ed.ac.uk ("Martin Adamson")
    To: forteana@lists.primenet.com
    Subject: Fossil sleuths trace long-lost fragment of giant flying reptile 
    Date: Thu, 09 May

    May 9 1996 

    BRITAIN

    Fossil sleuths trace long-lost fragment of giant flying reptile

    BY NICK NUTTALL

    FOSSILISED remains of the world's largest flying creature, the
    size of a Second World War Spitfire, have been identified by
    scientists after months of detective work in the Middle East.

    The Anglo-German team believes it has found the neckbone of a
    flying reptile similar to the pterodactyl. It had a wingspan of 12
    metres and was flying over the earth 65 million years ago.
    
    Martin Martill of Portsmouth University and Eberhard Frey of the
    State Museum for Natural History in Karlsruhe rediscovered the
    bone after it had been unearthed in Jordan more than half a
    century ago, during the building of the Damascus-to-Amman railway,
    and then lost.
    
    The archaeologists believe its owner had a wingspan up to a metre
    larger than its nearest rival, a flying reptile or pterosaurus
    called Quetzalcoatlus northropi found in Texas. Dr Martill said
    the "new" find, called Arambourgiana philadelphiae, was as big as
    a light aircraft and probably had a worldwide distribution. "It
    had a really massive head, tiny body, and enormous wings. Not the
    sort of creature you want to meet on a dark night or park your car
    under."  The bone led the team to conclude that not only had they
    found a new species but also nature's biggest flyer.
    
    A workman building the railway unearthed the 62cm fossil in 1943,
    attracting the interest of a Mr Kavar, the head of a phosphate
    mine near by. "It was eventually shown to a man called Fielding, a
    Brit and director of antiquities at the local museum," Dr Martill
    said. "The event was considered so exciting at the time that the
    bone was even shown to the then King of Jordan. He accused
    Fielding of blasphemy after being told that the bone was millions
    of years old."
    
    The first full appraisal was carried out by Camille Arambourg, a
    French palaeontologist who shipped the fossil back to Paris and
    published a report in 1954. He concluded it was a handbone from a
    pterosaurus.
    
    But Dr Martill and Dr Frey decided that the bone was worthy of a
    fresh appraisal after seeing a photograph of it a few years
    ago. They went to Amman last year to trawl through museums and the
    mine's offices. They even tracked down a Mr Kavar, the mine
    owner's grandson. "He is a shipping magnate and was interested in
    the story, remembering the specimen being brought into the house
    as a 14-year-old boy," Dr Martill said.
    
    After weeks of searching, the scientists gave up, in spite of
    finding other fossils hidden in a curio cupboard at the mine's
    head office. Fortunately, a Jordanian geologist who had been
    helping them during their visit kept searching and a few days
    later found the bone at the university. "It was a place we had not
    considered because it is a new university," Dr Martill said.  "But
    there was the specimen."
    
    Dr Martill said the full length of the artefact was originally
    probably about 77cm, making it larger than the neck of any other
    known pterosaurus.
    
    The description of the find and the species is published in Neues
    Jahrbuch fuer Geologie und Palaeontologie. The scientists believe
    that Arambourgiania philadelphiae was very similiar to
    Quetzalcoatlus northropi and are willing to discuss the
    possibility with other researchers that they are the same
    species. So far, however, their research indicates that they are
    different.