Re: Pterosaur size (Was: Great in the air, not so good underwater)

[Mike Taylor <mike@indexdata.com>]

Tim Williams writes:
>> Doesn't seem true for dinosaurs either - the biggest theropods, the
>> biggest ornithischians, and most of the contenders for biggest
>> sauropod, are Cretaceous.
> 
> Hmmm... but are the contenders for biggest sauropods from the *end*
> of the Cretaceous?  There were some impressively-sized sauropods in
> the Campanian and Maastrichtian (_Pelligrinisaurus_ was pretty big,
> and _Bruhathkayosaurus_ was enormous - IF it's a sauropod).
> However, most of the 'biggest' sauropods are from the Upper Jurassic
> or Lower Cretaceous.

Don't forget _Puertasaurus reuili_, a truly absurd titanosaur from the
Maastrichtian of Patagonia:

        Novas, Fernando E., Leonardo Salgado, Jorge Calvo and Federico
        Agnolin.  2005.  Giant titanosaur (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from
        the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia.  Rev. Mus. Argentino
        Cienc. Nat., n.s.  7(1): 37-41.

The PDF is freely available at:
        http://www.macn.secyt.gov.ar/cont_Publicaciones/Rns-Vol07-1_37-41.pdf

I direct your attention particularly to Fig. 3, which shows an
anterior dorsal of _P._ to be, if anything, slightly larger than one
of _Argentinosaurus_.  This specimen is particularly spectacular as it
preserves a cervical so vast as to be comical -- about 118 cm long,
from prezyg to postzyg, and 140 cm _wide_, including the laterally
projected origins of the fused cervical ribs.

Woah!  Dude!  Extreme!

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