And yet more new pterosaurs (Patreon)

Hot on the heels of the Eudimorphodon reconstruction that appeared here recently, here are the newest pterosaurs I've produced. In the middle we have Dsungaripterus, an animal I drew way back (in 2016, I think). But I screwed the proportions up, making the forearm and wing metacarpal too short by about 30%. In view of that I opted to re-do it entirely. Here's the contrast between the original drawing and the new one...

Note that there are a few other revisions, most of which reflect the way I reconstruct pterosaurs now. At least some reasonable data is available on the proportions of Dsungaripterus: I base what we see here on the photos and measurements published by C C Young in 1973. I closely modelled the head shape on the appearance and proportions of actual skulls (I was looking at one while in China in January 2019), but added extra keratin to the beak portions and dorsal crest to make these areas larger than they are on fossil skulls. The corrugated regions on the side of the crest and pattern are wholly speculative but look reasonable to me.

To the left of the new  Dsungaripterus is the remarkable Moganopterus, one of the strangest pterosaurs of all (in my opinion).  Moganopterus is known only from its skull and a few cervical vertebrae, so the proportions of the whole animal are inferred from probably related animals (it seems most likely to be a ctenochasmatoid). As you can see, its skull proportions are ridiculous - incredibly long and shallow, and equipped with a posterior bony crest. It was large as well, the wingspan probably being 7 m long or so. Moganopterus is controversial as goes phylogenetic position and there are a few competing ideas. It's partly for that reason that I need it illustrated in the book.

Finally, at far right we have a nyctosaur - specifically, one of the fantastic 'antlered' Nyctosaurus specimens. When the two antlered specimens were first published (by Chris Bennett in 2003) there was immediate suggestion that the two spars of the 'antler' should be connected by a skin sail. Several reconstructions and published articles endorse this view. I think that it's almost certainly wrong and have argued against it at Tetrapod Zoology - I think  that my takes on the issue have been influential, since at least some people who were champions of the idea soon gave up on it. Anyway... the proportions of the Nyctosaurus you see here are based on the good skeletons of this animal described by Williston and Miller, and reconstructed more recently by Mark Witton. The look and colour scheme is inspired by albatrosses, with the markings on the crest again being reflective of the idea that this was most likely a signalling device.

With these animals added to the montage, it now looks like this...

I've added numbers, just for ease of reference. All of this is provisional for now. The new animals are 1, 3 and 15. I still need to re-do Dimorphodon (20) and Campylognathoides (19), since I'm not happy with those at all.

Thanks as always for your support! Possibly snakes next.