Tapejara (pterosaur)

Taxobox
name = "Tapejara"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous

---

image_caption = "Tapejara" "navigans".
image_width = 200px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
ordo = Pterosauria
subordo = Pterodactyloidea
familia = Tapejaridae
genus = "Tapejara"
genus_authority = Kellner, 1989
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
* "T. wellnhoferi" (type)
* ?"T. navigans" Frey, Martill & Buchy, 2003

"Tapejara" (from a Tupi word meaning "the old being") is a genus of Brazilian pterosaur from the Cretaceous Period. The "Tapejara" genus showed wide diversity in size, some with a wingspan of 6 metres. Both species bore a differently sized/shaped crest that may have been used to signal and display for other "Tapejara", much as toucans use their bright bills to signal to one another. "Tapejara" crests consisted of a semicircular crest over the snout, and in the case of the type species "T. wellnhoferi", a bony prong which extended back behind the head. A second species, "T. navigans", lacked this prong and therefore may not belong to a different genus. Soft tissue impressions also show that in "T. navigans", the small bony crest was extended by a much larger structure made of a keratinous material (similar to the related "T. imperator", with an even larger crest supported by a backwards prong as in "T. wellnhoferi"). The complete crest of "T. navigans" rose in a sharp, sail-like "dome" high above the rest of the skull.

pecies and classification

The type species and first discovered, "T. wellnhoferi", is the smallest species assigned to "Tapejara" and does not preserve evidence of soft-tissue crest extensions. A second species, originally named "Tapejara imperator", is much larger and possessed a crest made up of distinctively long prongs, projecting from the rounded snout crest and the back of the skull, which supported a large, possibly rounded sail-like crest of keratin. A third species, "Tapejara navigans", was mid-sized and sported a similar crest to "T. imperator", though narrower and more dome-shaped, that lacked the backwards-pointing bony support prong.

Several studies in 2007 showed that "T. imperator" and possibly "T. navigans" are too different from "T. wellnhoferi" and therefore require their own genus names. The species "T. imperator" was given its own genus, "Tupandactylus", by Kellner and Campos.cite journal |last=Kellner |first=A.W.A. |coauthors=and Campos, D.A. |year=2007 |title=Short note on the ingroup relationships of the Tapejaridae (Pterosauria, Pterodactyloidea |journal=Boletim do Museu Nacional |volume=75 |pages=1–14 ] Unwin and Martill found that "T. imperator" and "T. navigans" belong in the same genus, and named them "Ingridia imperator" and "I. navigans", respectively.Unwin, D. M. and Martill, D. M. (2007). "Pterosaurs of the Crato Formation." In Martill, D. M., Bechly, G. and Loveridge, R. F. (eds), "The Crato Fossil Beds of Brazil: Window into an Ancient World." Cambridge University Press (Cambridge), pp. 475-524.] Because "Tupandactylus" was named first, it retains priority over the name "Ingridia". To complicate matters, both the name "Tupandactylus" and "Ingridia" used the former "Tapejara imperator" as their type species, but because the scientists who described "Tupandactylus" did not include "T. navigans", "T. navigans" has never technically been assigned to this genus. With "Ingridia" discarded as an objective junior synonym, this leaves "Tapejara" "navigans"/"Ingridia" "navigans" without a genus name.Naish, D. (2008). "Crato Formation fossils and the new tapejarids." Weblog entry. "Tetrapod Zoology". 18 January 2008. Accessed 31 January 2008 (http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2008/01/crato_formation_tapejarids.php).]

In popular culture

"Tapejara navigans" appeared in the 1999 BBC television series "Walking with Dinosaurs", depicted during a hypothetical breeding season in Brazil. Interestingly, though the series was released in 1999, "T. navigans" was not formally described and named until 2003.

References

*In the Sky (Dinosaurs) (Library Binding) (ISBN 0-8368-2918-2)
*Haines, Tim & Chambers, Paul. (2006) The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life. Canada: Firefly Books Ltd.

External links

* [http://members.aol.com/Dinofiles/tap.html Illustration by Joe Tucciarone]