Pterosaur.net 2010 research roundup

One of the main motivations of the creation of Pterosaur.net was to get real information the public from real researchers. There is a ton of internet stuff on pterosaurs and (from what I have seen at least) the vast majority is out of date, badly put together, inaccurate or just amazingly wrong. Of course, the flipside of this is that we kinda need to show that we know what we are talking about. While that is actually rather hard to do, we can at least show that we are actively involved in research. Here then is a list of the papers and conference abstracts that the P.net team have been involved in over the last year. Given that for many of us, pterosaurs are not our main arm of research (Darren and I both do more dinosaurs than pterosaurs, Mike also works on birds), and that we do have other things to do as well (Ross has a PhD thesis to write, Lorna is a museum curator) it’s really pretty good.

In addition to most of us making it to Flugsaurier this year (which of course does bump up the abstract quotient) we have pushed out a decent sized fistful of pterosaur papers. While we don’t form any kind of formal research aggregate, the fact that we have and continue to collaborate within this community must make us one of, if not the, most productive and influential pterosaur group out there.

Conway, J.A. 2010 Reconstructing a pterosaur, a case study. Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31(S1):14

Dyke, G., Benton, M., Posmosanu, E., & Naish, D. 2010. Early Cretaceous (Berriasian) birds and pterosaurs from the Cornet bauxite mine, Romania. Palaeontology, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00997.x

Elgin, R.A., Hone, D.W.E. & Frey, E. The extent of the pterosaur flight membrane. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, in press.

Habib M. 2010. The structural mechanics and evolution of aquaflying birds. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 99(4): 687-698

Habib, M. 2010. 10,100 Miles: Maximum range and soaring efficiency of azhdarchid pterosaurs. J. Vert. Paleontol., SVP Program and Abstracts Book, 2010: 99A. 2010. Soaring efficiency and long distance travel in giant pterosaurs. Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31(S1):27-28

Habib, M, Cunningham J. 2010. Capacity for Water Launch in Anhanguera and Quetzalcoatlus. Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31(S1):24-25

Habib M, Godfrey S. 2010. On the hypertrophied opisthotic processes in Dsungaripterus weii Young (Pterodactyloidea, Pterosauria). Acta Geoscientica Sinica 31(S1):26-26

Hone, D.W.E., Lü, J. 2010. A new specimen of Dendrorhynchoides (Pterosauria: Anurognathidae) with a long tail and the evolution of the pterosaurian tail. Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31(S1):29-30

Hyder, E. S., Martill, D. M. and Witton, M. P. 2010. A neoazhdarchian pelvis with a possible preserved air sac from the Santana Formation of Brazil: implications for functionality and phylogeny. Acta Geoscientica Sinica, 31 (1), 32-32.

Monninger, S., Frey, E., Elgin, R., Tischlinger, H., Sartori, J., & Schneider, P. 2010. Folds, wrinkles and the material properties of the pterosaurian flight membrane. Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31(S1): 52

Moody, R. T. J. & Naish, D. 2010. Alan Jack Charig (1927-1997): an overview of his academic accomplishments and role in the world of fossil reptile research. In Moody, R. T. J., Buffetaut, E., Naish, D. & Martill, D. M. (eds) Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Saurians: A Historical Perspective. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 343, 89-109.

Naish, D. 2010. Pneumaticity, the early years: Wealden Supergroup dinosaurs and the hypothesis of saurischian pneumaticity. In Moody, R. T. J., Buffetaut, E., Naish, D. &Martill, D. M. (eds) Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Saurians: A Historical Perspective. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 343, 229-236.

Nesbitt, S.J. & Hone, D.W.E. An external mandibular fenestra in pterosaurs supports placement within Archosauriformes. Palaeodiversity, 3: 225-233.

Steel, L. 2010. The Pterosaur collection at the Natural History Museum, London, UK, overview, recent curatorial developments and exciting new finds. Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31(S1):59-61

Tomkins, J. L., LeBas, N. R., Witton, M. P., Martill, D. M. and Humphries, S. 2010. Positive allometry and the prehistory of sexual selection. The American Naturalist, 176, 141-148.

Tütken, T., Hone, D.W.E. 2010. The ecology of pterosaurs based on carbon and oxygen isotope analysis. Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31(S1) 65-67.

Witton M, Habib M. 2010. On the size and flight diversity of giant pterosaurs, the use of birds as pterosaur analogues and comments on pterosaur flightlessness. PLoS ONE. 5(11): e13982. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0013982

Witton M, Habib M. 2010. The volancy, or not, of giant pterosaurs. Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31(S1):76-78

Witton, M. P. 2010. Pteranodon and beyond: the history of giant pterosaurs from 1870 onward. In: Moody, R. T. J., Buffetaut, E., Naish, D. and Martill, D. M. (eds) Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Saurians: A Historical Perspective. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 310, 313-323.

Witton, M. P., Martill, D. M. and Loveridge, R. F. 2010. Clipping the wings of giant pterosaurs: comments on wingspan estimations and diversity. Acta Geoscientica Sinica, 31 (1), 79-81.