1. Evolutionary Biology

New soft tissue data of pterosaur tail vane reveals sophisticated, dynamic tensioning usage and expands its evolutionary origins

  1. Natalia Jagielska
  2. Thomas G Kaye
  3. Michael B Habib
  4. Tatsuya Hirasawa
  5. Michael Pittman  Is a corresponding author
  1. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  2. Foundation for Scientific Advancement, United States
  3. Department of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, United States
  4. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Japan
  5. School of Life Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.100673.3
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  1. Natalia Jagielska
  2. Thomas G Kaye
  3. Michael B Habib
  4. Tatsuya Hirasawa
  5. Michael Pittman
(2024)
New soft tissue data of pterosaur tail vane reveals sophisticated, dynamic tensioning usage and expands its evolutionary origins
eLife 13:RP100673.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.100673.3
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2 figures and 1 additional file

Figures

Figure 1
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Long-tailed early-diverging non-pterodactyloid pterosaurs had diverse tail vanes but these disappeared in later-diverging short-tailed pterodactyloids.

Blue, ontogenetic morphs of Rhamphorhynchus muensteri: BSPG 1938 I 503 a and ROM VP 55352. Green, Sordes pilosus PIN 2585/3. Orange, Pterorhynchus wellnhoferi CAGS02-IG-guasa-2/DM608. Scale bars are 3 cm.

Figure 2
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Tail vane of Rhamphorhynchus muensteri.

(A1) LSF image of NHMUK PV OR 37787. (A2) Line drawing of LSF image of NHMUK PV OR 37787. (B1) LSF image of NHMUK PV OR 37003. (B2) Line drawing of LSF image of NHMUK PV OR 37003. (C1) LSF image of NMS G.1994.13.1. (C2) Line drawing of LSF image of NMS G.1994.13.1. (D) Interpretative line drawing of Rhamphorhynchus muensteri tail vane unloaded and slack as well as in tension. Combines LSF results of NHMUK PV OR 37003 and 37787 as well as NMS G.1994.13.1 (A1–C2). (E) Life reconstruction of Rhamphorhynchus muensteri using its tail vane during flight. All scale bars are 1 cm.

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https://cdn.elifesciences.org/articles/100673/elife-100673-mdarchecklist1-v1.docx

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  1. Natalia Jagielska
  2. Thomas G Kaye
  3. Michael B Habib
  4. Tatsuya Hirasawa
  5. Michael Pittman
(2024)
New soft tissue data of pterosaur tail vane reveals sophisticated, dynamic tensioning usage and expands its evolutionary origins
eLife 13:RP100673.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.100673.3