Pterosaur bicentenary subjective report

[Silvio Renesto <renesto@mailserver.unimi.it>]

Dear all,
        I'm just back from the Symposium "Two hundred years of pterosaurs" held 
in
Toulouse, France on september 5-8, and I think that someone out there might
be interested in a short report. If I feel wrong, my sincere apologies, in
advance ;-)
It was a nice and very interesting  meeting that saw te participation of
renowned ptterosaur specialist from Europe and US along with
ptero-enthusiasts etc.
The level of coomunication was in general very good and personally I
appreciated the morpho-functional approach that permeated the whole
meeting, whit little taxonomic mess. The night field trip to the pterosaur
tracksite of Crayssac was both interesting and "cool". Great quality of
conservation of many tracks!
Among the communications I enjoyed particularly (SUBJECTIVE, this
absolutely does not mean I  consider all the other speeches I do not
mention as bad ones, on the contrary most were extremely good). Just few
examples:
"Dino" Frey,  presented his interpretation (jointly with Dave Martill) of
azdarchids as bottom decker flyers (less stability, more maneuvrability) in
contrast with Anhanguerids as top deckers (more stability less
maneouvrability). In his opinion the evidence comes from the different
position of the glenoid int he two groups. He accompanied the speech with
lively "physical" performances of the two models.
Fabio dalla Vecchia made the point on Late Triassic italian pterosaurs,
presenting new data about Peteinosaurus and correcting some mistakes made
by previous authors (e. g.) the only Eudimorphodon specimen with elongate
zygapophyses in the tail is indeed a Peteinosaurus).
Chris Bennett presented a different morphological interpretation of the
flight musculature in the pterosaurian pectoral girdle, challenging the
previous interpretations of the supracoracoideus muscle as wing elevator. 
Dino Frey again presented stunning images in UV light revealing ususpected
details of soft parts of some pterosaurs, apart for the presence of soft
crests, horny sheats on jaws and unguals, of "bristles and hair" (to be
taken not as a scientific term, I mean those elongated integumental
structures that cover some parts of pterosaurs body) also the presence of a
big blood vessel that run parallel to the proximal part of the wing
membrane branching with a  distinct pattern etc...
I would mention other contributions I think were very interesting, but I
have to stop there in order to avoid boring listmembers. However, if anyone
over there wants other infos or discussion, I will be glad to respond
either privately or on the list as preferred.
All the best,

                                        Silvio Renesto
-

"where did Taiji come from? It came from Wuji "   
                                        (Wang Zongyue)
Dr. Silvio Renesto
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra
Università degli Studi di Milano
via Mangiagalli 34
I 20133 Milano
Italy

phone +39-0223698232
fax  +39-02-70638261
e-mail:    renesto@mailserver.unimi.it
or/and     Silvio.Renesto@unimi.it
Have a look at our Late Triassic site at:
http://users.unimi.it/vertpal/index.htm