RE: *Hatzegopteryx thambema*

["Williams, Tim" <TiJaWi@agron.iastate.edu>]

David Marjanovic wrote:

> I've just read more than I knew before about this pterosaur in the SVP
> News Bulletin (http://www.vertpaleo.org/bulletin/182.pdf, page 63/92,
> allegedly only for members with password, but I [a member] wasn't 
> asked). I'd appreciate the ref of its description; many thanks in 
> advance. :-)

Buffetaut, E., Grigorescu, D., and Csiki, Z. (2002).  A new giant pterosaur
with a robust skull from the latest Cretaceous of Romania.
_Naturwissenschaften_ 89: 180-184. 

Available online at ...
http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00114/contents/02/00307/

Holotype
Associated skull elements (occiput, right suspensorium), incomplete left
humerus and unidentified bone fragments from a single individual.
Palaeontological Collection of the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics of the
University of Bucharest, no. FGGUB R1083.

Stratum typicum
Chocolate-coloured siltstones of the late Maastrichtian Densu-Ciula
Formation.

Locus typicus
Valioara, northwestern Hateg Basin, Transylvania, Romania.

Diagnosis
A very large azhdarchid pterosaur with a robustly built and posteriorly
broad skull. Helical articulation of the quadrate with the mandible massive,
with smoothly rounded rather than angular condyles, and no notch posterior
to the lateral condyle.

Referred material
A 385-mm-long femur (FGGUB R1625), lacking both articular ends, from the
Densus-Ciula Formation at Tutea (Hateg Basin) may belong to _Hatzegopteryx
thambema_.




------------------------------------------------------------ 

Timothy J. Williams 

USDA-ARS Researcher 
Agronomy Hall 
Iowa State University 
Ames IA 50014 

Phone: 515 294 9233 
Fax:   515 294 3163