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posted by mrpg on Thursday August 16 2018, @11:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the flintstones dept.

Winged reptiles thrived before dinosaurs

Palaeontologists have found a new species of pterosaur - the family of prehistoric flying reptiles that includes pterodactyl. It is about 210 millions years old, pre-dating its known relatives by 65 million years.

Named Caelestiventus hanseni, the species' delicate bones were preserved in the remains of a desert oasis. The discovery suggests that these animals thrived around the world before the dinosaurs evolved.

[...] Finding a pterosaur in an ancient Triassic-aged sand dune is a hugely pleasant surprise. What makes this discovery so remarkable is that very few pterosaurs are known from the entire Triassic Period, which means that we have few fossils that tell the story of how these strange winged reptiles evolved during the first 30 million years of their history.

It's a trifecta: a Triassic pterosaur from a new place, preserved in an immaculate way, and found in rocks from an environment that we didn't think they lived in so early during their evolution. What this means is that pterosaurs were already geographically widespread and thriving in a variety of environments very early in their evolution.

Dinosaurs first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago.

Caelestiventus hanseni gen. et sp. nov. extends the desert-dwelling pterosaur record back 65 million years (DOI: 10.1038/s41559-018-0627-y) (DX)


Original Submission

Pterosaurs are the oldest known powered flying vertebrates. Originating in the Late Triassic, they thrived to the end of the Cretaceous. Triassic pterosaurs are extraordinarily rare and all but one specimen come from marine deposits in the Alps. A new comparatively large (wing span >150 cm) pterosaur, Caelestiventus hanseni gen. et sp. nov., from Upper Triassic desert deposits of western North America preserves delicate structural and pneumatic details not previously known in early pterosaurs, and allows a reinterpretation of crushed Triassic specimens. It shows that the earliest pterosaurs were geographically widely distributed and ecologically diverse, even living in harsh desert environments. It is the only record of desert-dwelling non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs and predates all known desert pterosaurs by more than 65 Myr. A phylogenetic analysis shows it is closely allied with Dimorphodon macronyx from the Early Jurassic of Britain.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday August 17 2018, @02:04AM (3 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Friday August 17 2018, @02:04AM (#722643) Homepage Journal

    -e." -- David Courtney Johnson [seeingtheforest.com].

    There is already a serious problem with elderly people running out of their retirement savings because when they were young and working, they didn't take into account advances in medicine.

    In the US at least there are a lot fewer smokers than there was back in the day.

    It's been clinically proven that oatmeal reduces your cholesterol. Too bad about the glyphosate it often contains.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by legont on Friday August 17 2018, @02:19AM (2 children)

    by legont (4179) on Friday August 17 2018, @02:19AM (#722649)

    Total BS. All the old people always start their talk with a financial advisor with: "never ever touch principal". Advisors always joke that their clients plan to leave forever. My bet they were simply screwed like everybody else.

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
    • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday August 18 2018, @09:47AM (1 child)

      by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday August 18 2018, @09:47AM (#723077) Homepage Journal

      They're no longer required to act in their clients' best interests.

      That leads me to believe that of those financial advisors are either employees of or sales reps to large financial corporations from time to time receive instructions to pump a specific stock to their clients. After all the advisors load up on said stock themselves, they drop all their clients' dimes on that stock all at the very same time then dump their own lot before the SEC catches on.

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
      • (Score: 3, Informative) by legont on Saturday August 18 2018, @02:57PM

        by legont (4179) on Saturday August 18 2018, @02:57PM (#723126)

        Even when they were required, overall "health" of the business motivation prevails. For example I always get calls during financial crisis - don't sell, let us help. The way it works, senior management sends a note: lift your ass and call everybody to buy low and do not sell no matter what until we unload "smart money" positions. Nowadays actually sending a memo is dangerous, but everybody understands; or else.

        --
        "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.