Two pterosaur articles in tomorrow's Nature

[MKIRKALDY@aol.com]

Since we haven't talked about pterosaurs in a long time...

Nature 432, 571 - 572 (02 December 2004); doi:10.1038/432571a  
Palaeobiology: Argentinian unhatched pterosaur fossil

LUIS M. CHIAPPE*, LAURA CODORNIÃâ, GERALD GRELLET-TINNER*â & DAVID 
RIVAROLAâ

* Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles 
County, Los Angeles, California 90007, USA
â Departamento GeologÃa, Universidad Nacional de San Luis, Chacabuco y 
Pedernera, 5700 San Luis, Argentina
â Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los 
Angeles, California 90089, USA
chiappe@nhm.org

"Our knowledge of the eggs and embryos of pterosaurs, the Mesozoic flying 
reptiles, is sparse. Until now, the recent discovery of an ornithocheirid 
embryo from 121-million-year-old rocks in China constituted the only reliable 
evidence of an unhatched pterosaur. Here we describe an embryonic fossil of a 
different pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous lacustrine deposits of Loma del 
Pterodaustro (the Lagarcito Formation, which is about 100 million years old) in 
central Argentina. This new fossil provides insight into the eggshell 
morphology, early growth and nesting environments of pterosaurs."
______
 
Nature 432, 572 (02 December 2004); doi:10.1038/432572a  
Palaeontology: Pterosaur egg with a leathery shell

QIANG JI*â, SHU-AN JIâ, YEN-NIEN CHENGâ, HAI-LU YOUâ, JUN-CHANG LÃâ, 
YONG-QING LIUâ & CHONG-XI YUANÂ

* Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
â Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 
100037, China
â National Museum of Natural Sciences, Taichung 404, Taiwan
 School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, 
Beijing 100083, China
jirod@cags.net.cn

"The recent discovery of a pterosaur egg with embryonic skeleton and soft 
tissues from the Yixian Formation confirmed that the flying pterosaurs were 
oviparous. Here we describe another pterosaur egg whose exquisite preservation 
indicates that the shell structure was soft and leathery."
_____

Mary