Pterosaurs are a group of extinct flying reptiles that lived from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous, about 228 to 66 million years ago.
They were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight, and they dominated the skies for millions of years.
However, their origin and evolution are still poorly understood, as their fossil record is scarce and fragmentary.
How did these creatures acquire their unique features, such as wings, beaks, and air-filled bones? What were their closest relatives among other reptiles?
A new discovery from Brazil may help answer some of these questions.
A new lagerpetid from the Triassic of Brazil
JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP via Getty Images
A team of paleontologists from Brazil, Argentina, and the U.S., has found the fossilized remains of a creature they described as a precursor to the pterosaur at a dig site in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
In their paper published in the journal Nature, the fossil is a well-preserved partial skeleton that includes parts of the skull, spine, limbs, and pelvis.
It was found embedded in a layer of rock that dates back to about 230 million years ago, during the middle Triassic period.
The researchers named it Venetoraptor gassenae, which means "hunter raptor" in Latin.
Venetoraptor gassenae belongs to a group of reptiles called lagerpetids, which are considered to be close relatives of pterosaurs.
Lagerpetids were small, bipedal, and agile animals that lived on land and probably fed on insects and small vertebrates. They had long legs, big hands with curved claws, and toothless beaks.
They also had some features that are shared with pterosaurs, such as an elongated fourth finger, a large opening in the skull behind the eye, and a reduced number of bones in the wrist.
However, unlike pterosaurs, lagerpetids did not have wings or air-filled bones. They also had shorter necks and smaller heads.
These differences suggested that lagerpetids were not capable of flight, but they may have been able to climb trees or glide using their long limbs and claws.
The discovery of Venetoraptor gassenae has important implications for understanding the origin and evolution of pterosaurs.
It shows that lagerpetids were more diverse and widespread than previously thought, as they are now known from Africa, North America, and South America.
It also showed that lagerpetids coexisted with some of the earliest dinosaurs in the same environment.
The researchers suggested that lagerpetids represent a transitional stage between the common ancestor of pterosaurs and dinosaurs and the fully-fledged flying pterosaurs.
They proposed that pterosaurs evolved from lagerpetids by acquiring several adaptations for flight over time, such as larger wings, lighter bones, stronger muscles, and more efficient lungs.
The researchers also suggested that lagerpetids and pterosaurs are more closely related to each other than to dinosaurs.
This contradicted some previous studies that have placed lagerpetids within the dinosaur lineage or as a sister group to both dinosaurs and pterosaurs.
The researchers argued that their new fossil provides more evidence for the lagerpetid-pterosaur relationship based on anatomical similarities and phylogenetic analyses.
The study provided a valuable contribution to the knowledge of the early history of pterosaurs and their relatives, and a new tool for exploring the evolutionary transitions between land-dwelling and flying reptiles in a changing world.
