Descrição morfológica e análise morfométrica de um exemplar de pterossauro (Archosauria, Pterosauria) do Grupo Santana, Bacia do Araripe

Abstract

The pterosaurs are a lineage of extinct archosaurs with morphological adaptations for flight. They originated in the late Triassic and became extinct at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The first description of a pterosaur species in the Araripe Basin was in the early 1970s, and to date more than 350 specimens have been found, of which about 30 species have been described. The presence of a new specimen represented by a partial pterosaur skull highlights the relevance of this study, as it is common for species to be based on incomplete and unique specimens. This study analyses, describes, and compares morphological and morphometric aspects of a specimen (MPSC R 1126) of a pterosaur borrowed from the Plácido Cidade Nuvens Paleontological Museum of the Regional University of Cariri. The material was described by identifying the preserved parts and these data were then used for comparison with other specimens of anhanguerid pterosaurs, in addition to comparison by qualitative morphometry. In addition, the two-dimensional geometric morphometric method was used to analyse variation in anhanguerid skulls, with 7 anatomical landmarks recorded in a lateral view of the material. The result was a skull composed of premaxilla and maxilla; an elongate premaxillary sagittal crest; about 15 alveoli on the right side, where two teeth are preserved in the posterior part of the skull, and the palate, which has a small sagittal keel. In the principal component analysis (PCA), the first three components show about 93.1% and after the component analysis, as in the morphological comparisons, the material showed greater morphological affinities with the specimens assigned to the species "Anhanguera araripensis", more specifically with the material belonging to the National Museum (MN 4735-V), therefore we assign this specimen (MPSC R 1126) to Anhanguera sp.