"'It's a very strange
kind of bony tissue which must have been quite light and at the same time
quite strong,' says Dr. Buffetaut, who described the discovery at the Toulouse
meeting."
>>The bone structure is strikingly
similar to that in Q northropi, and in both animals appears to be related
to structural strengh/weight ratios. The proximal third or thereabouts
of the new humerus is preserved, but is very eroded.<<
"He
estimated that the skull must have measured 10 feet long - 4 feet more
then the Big Bend fossil's skull."
>>No portion of northropi's neck or
skull are preserved. The estimate of 6 feet for northropi is probably
short by something well over a foot, based on very iffy projections up
from Q species. My personal impression is that the northropi skull
would probably be very close to 2.2 meters IF it were shaped similarly
to that of Q species, and that it would likely be about 10-20% taller in
height than a Q species skull increased to the same length. Note
that the new full-scale northropi skeletal replicas have an isometric morph
of the Q sp skull which is probably not tall enough even if shaped appropriately.
The portions of the new skull that are preserved have little overlap with
those from Q species, making comparison difficult, but it is obviously
quite different from Q species, and it is very large. Enough of the
humerus is preserved to make a rough comparison between the new animal
and northropi. The shape of the humerus and delto-pectoral crest
are strikingly similar to the eye. The delto-pectoral crest of northropi
measures 9.84 cm (3 7/8") across from side to side (in the spanwise direction).
The delto-pectoral crest of the new animal appears by eye to be considerably
smaller than that of northropi, perhaps on the very loose order of 7 cm,
but that may be because it is poorly preserved. The jaw hinge appears
to be singularly massive and is most impressive. I suspect that Eric
is right in his speculation that the new animal is flightworthy.<< Thus
it seems that the skull isn't complete but that enough of it is there to
estimate its length as well as make comments about its inner structure
which makes me curious as to how much of the skull they exactly found.
>>Aft of the eye socket only.<<
The article also states that it and
Spanish fossil may have had larger wingspans then known Quetzalcoatlus
though only by a yard or so.
>>There may not be enough material
from the new animal to address that question. I would suggest bringing
a photo of the two humerii to the same scale and doing a direct overlay
to get a better idea, but one would need to keep in mind that the new humerus
is in poor shape. Since the humerii of Qn and Qsp are not isometric
morphs, information from other bones in the wings were needed to compare
the wingspans of those two. These bones do not appear to be present
in the new animal. Nonetheless, it is BIG.<< Hope
I haven't wasted your time.
>>Not mine, anyway.
All the best,
JimC<<