Re: Spinosaurs ate pterosaurs

[Amtoine Grant <ajgrant@eastlink.ca>]

On Friday, July 2, 2004, at 10:20  PM, Nick Gardner wrote:

> --- Amtoine Grant <omitted e-mail> wrote:
> > Has there been any mention of what family or species
> > this
> > 'pained-in-the-neck' pterosaur belonged to?
>
> Heh. Buffetaut, Martill and Escuillié identify the
> vertebrae as belong to an ornithocheirid, but don't
> really specify as to why it is one.  However, I
> wouldn't be surprised given how common they are in the
> Santana Formation.  I don't know much about pterosaur
> systematics, admittably, but how closely related are
> anhanguerids and ornithocheirids? I've seen images in
> Wellnhofer's big pterosaur book from the early 90s and
> always thought they seemed a little similiar.

Interestingly enough, I was about to suggest that the crest on 
Tropeognathus may have helped it when [conjecturally] diving for fish. 
With pterosaur wings' great surface area, it may have provided 
considerable momentum/thrust if flapped while in the water - especially 
if it dived in from the air and only had to flap to rise out/toward the 
surface. Any thoughts?