记中国辽宁西部九佛堂组发现的中国翼龙一新种

A NEW LOWER CRETACEOUS SINOPTERID PTEROSAUR FROM THE WESTERN LIAONING,CHINA

根据发现于辽宁省西部下白垩统九佛堂组的一小型翼手龙类骨架 ,建立一新种 :谷氏中国翼龙Sinopterusguisp .nov .。它的吻端直而尖锐 ,其下颌发育一明显的脊突。肱骨的三角脊发育 ,其末端没有扩展 ,呈四边形。翼掌骨的长度稍微短于飞行指第一指节的长度。股骨与胫骨之比率小 ,乌喙骨短于肩胛骨 ,联合背椎只有椎体相互愈合。虽然它与董氏中国翼龙相似 ,但是存在明显区别 ,比如个体较小 ,而大多数背椎椎体相互愈合等。

Pterosaurs are special flying reptiles. They are difficult to be preserved as fossils, due to their hollow and very thin bones. They were often found from marine and lagoonal sediments, such as the Solnhofen Limestone of Germany, the Santana Formation of Brazil, and the Cambridge Greensand of England (Unwin, 2001). They were seldom found from terrestrial deposits. Recently, five genera of pterosaurs found from western Liaoning and its peripheral areas have been reported, they are Eosipterus (Ji and Ji, 1997), Dendrorhynchoides (Ji and Ji, 1998; Ji et al ., 1999; see Unwin et al ., 2000), Haopterus (Wang and Lü, 2001), Jeholopterus (Wang et al ., 2002), and Sinopterus (Wang and Zhou, 2002). Some beautifully preserved skeletons with soft tissues and impressions (Wang et al ., 2002; Lü, 2002) provide important information on the study of the distribution, evolution and ecology of pterosaurs. This area may become the first pterosaur locality, in which more specimens are found from terrestrial deposits than Mongolia (Bakhurina and Unwin, 1995; Unwin et al ., 1997; Unwin and Bakhurina, 2000; Unwin et al ., 2000). Herein a small pterodactyloid pterosaur is described. It is the smallest toothless pterosaur found from the Jiufotang Formation so far.