Abstract
Fossil vertebrates from Antarctica are considerably rare, hampering our understanding of the evolutionary history of the biota from that continent. For several austral summers, the PALEOANTAR project has been carrying out fieldwork in the Antarctic Peninsula in search for fossils, particularly Cretaceous vertebrates. Among the specimens recovered so far are two bones referable to Pterosauria, more specifically to the Pterodacyloidea, the first volant reptiles from Antarctica to be fully described. MN 7800-V (part and counterpart) was recovered from a moraine at the Abernathy Flats (Santa Marta Formation, Lachman Crags Member, Santonian-Campanian) on James Ross Island. It is interpreted as the distal articulation of a first phalanx of the wing finger, representing an animal with an estimated wingspan between 3 and 4 m. The second specimen (MN 7801-V) comes from Vega Island (Snow Hill Island Formation, Maastrichtian) and is identified as a wing metacarpal IV of an animal with an estimated wingspan from 4 to 5 m. These occurrences show that pterodactyloids inhabited the Antarctic Peninsula at least during the Upper Cretaceous and demonstrate that large pterosaurs were widespread through all parts of the planet during that period.
Highlights
Pterosaurs were volant reptiles that existed for most of the Mesozoic Era, and became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous (e.g., Kellner 2006, Barrett et al 2008)
In 2006/2007, a team led by the Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) developed the project PALEOANTAR aiming to search for fossils at distinct locations of Northern Antarctic Peninsula (Kellner et al 2011)
Among the specimens recovered during that field season is one bone divided into two parts (MN 7800-V) that is here referred to Pterosauria
Summary
Pterosaurs were volant reptiles that existed for most of the Mesozoic Era, and became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous (e.g., Kellner 2006, Barrett et al 2008). In the austral summer of 2017/2018, members of the PALEOANTAR project participated in field activities at Vega Island under the TERRANTAR project This and subsequent expeditions to that island did not recover as many fossils as the 2015/2016 field season, there is one incomplete element that represents a second pterosaur bone from the James Ross Archipelago (MN 7801V). Both specimens are described here, showing the presence of flying reptiles in the Antarctic Peninsula during the late Cretaceous (Fig. 1). They are housed in the paleovertebrate collection (Departamento de Geologia e Paleontologia) of the Museu Nacional (MN) - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
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