Hamipterus
Sign in to saveHamipterus is an extinct genus of pteranodontoid pterosaurs from the Early Cretaceous Shengjinkou Formation of northwestern China. It is a monotypic genus known from a single species, the type species, H. tianshanensis.
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
6 sectionsContents
- Discovery and naming
- Description
- Phylogeny
- Paleobiology
- See also
- References
Hamipterus is an extinct genus of pteranodontoid pterosaurs from the Early Cretaceous Shengjinkou Formation of northwestern China. It is a monotypic genus known from a single species, the type species, H. tianshanensis.
==Discovery and naming== In 2006 from the Hami region in Xinjiang, the Shengjinkou Formation, a Konservat-Lagerstätte was reported, in this case lake sediments allowing for an exceptional preservation of fossils. The same year, Qiu Zhanxiang and Wang Banyue started official excavations. Part of the finds consisted of dense concentrations of pterosaur bones, associated with soft tissues and eggs. The site represented a nesting colony that storm floods had covered with mud. Dozens of individuals could be secured from a total that in 2014 was estimated to run into the many hundreds.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Hamipterus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.