Eurolimnornis

Eurolimnornis
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 142 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: †Pterosauria
Suborder: †Pterodactyloidea
Family: †Eurolimnornithidae
Kessler & Jurcsák, 1986
Genus: †Eurolimnornis
Kessler & Jurcsák, 1986
Species: †E. corneti
Binomial name
Eurolimnornis corneti
Kessler & Jurcsák, 1986

Eurolimnornis is the name given to a monotypic genus of pterosaurs from the Early Cretaceous. The only known species E. corneti probably was originally identified as a primitive but essentially modern bird (or even as an early neognathe ancestral to the grebes),[1] although alternative theories later suggested that it was a non-avialan theropod or pterosaur.[2] The identification as a pterosaur was supported by a re-evaluation of the fossil remains published in 2012.[3]

The holotype and only material known to date (MTCO-P 7896) is a distal fragment of the right humerus, which was at first ascribed to the same species as the specimen of Palaeocursornis corneti, a possible synonym also originally identified as a bird.[4][3]

The remains were found in Berriasian (around 143 mya) deposits at Cornet near Oradea, Romania. Eurolimnornis occurred on what was then an archipelago of volcanic and coral islands towards the east of the Piemont-Liguria Ocean. Its habitat was hilly, karstic terrain with numerous freshwater and/or brackish rivers, lakes and swamps. As this archipelago lay around 35°N latitude in a warmer, wetter climate than exists today, it was roughly similar to today's Caribbean or Indonesia.(Benton et al., 1997)

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kessler, E. & Jurcsák, T. (1986): New contributions to the knowledge of the Lower Cretaceous bird remains from Cornet (Romania). Travaux du Musée d'Histoire Naturelle Grigore Antipa 28: 289–295.
  2. ↑ Benton, M. J.; Cook, E.; Grigorescu, D.; Popa, E. & Tallódi, E. (1997): Dinosaurs and other tetrapods in an Early Cretaceous bauxite-filled fissure, northwestern Romania. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 130: 275-292. doi:10.1016/S0031-0182(96)00151-4 PDF fulltext
  3. 1 2 Federico L. Agnolin and David Varricchio (2012). "Systematic reinterpretation of Piksi barbarulna Varricchio, 2002 from the Two Medicine Formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Western USA (Montana) as a pterosaur rather than a bird". Geodiversitas. 34 (4): 883–894. doi:10.5252/g2012n4a10.
  4. ↑ Bock, Walter J. & Bühler, Paul (1996): Nomenclature of Cretaceous birds from Romania. Cretaceous Research 17: 509–514. PDF fulltext
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