NEW TAPEJARIDS

[darren.naish@port.ac.uk]

Dan (dbensen) wrote...

> Does anyone know whether the "Tapejara sp" of David Peters's pages has
> been officially named?  And if so, what is its species name?

Not sure what species you mean without consulting Dave's page, but a 
new species, _Tapejara imperator_, was described by Kellner recently. 
It has a relatively enormous soft tissue crest supported by thin bony 
spars from the premaxillary and parietal crests. Another new species 
(and possibly genus) is presently in press - it also has a huge soft 
tissue crest, but of a different shape (best approximated as a giant 
inverted U). Photos have already been published in _Oryctos_ 1.

Don't forget that tapejarids have now been reported from northern 
Africa (Buffetaut and Wellnhofer 1999). Some (unpublished) pterosaur 
phylogenies find Tapejaridae to be paraphyletic, with _Tupuxuara_ 
closer to azhdarchids than to _Tapejara_ - if you are familiar with 
Dave's pterosaur page you will know that he groups tapejarids in a 
clade (the Scalmognathi*) with pteranodontids.

*Did I spell it right?

"I find no grammatical flaws in the way Yoda talks"

DARREN NAISH 
PALAEOBIOLOGY RESEARCH GROUP
School of Earth, Environmental & Physical Sciences
UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH
Burnaby Building
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