Avgodectes

Taxobox
name = "Avgodectes"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous


image_width = 240px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
ordo = Pterosauria
genus = "Avgodectes"
genus_authority=Peters, 2004
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
*"A. pseudembryon" Peters, 2004 (type)

"Avgodectes" is a controversial pterosaur genus. The full binomial is "Avgodectes pseudembryon", which translates to "false-embryo egg-biter". Named by David Peters in 2004 and based on a pterosaur found within an egg.cite journal |last=Wang |first=X. |coauthors=Zhou, Z. |year=2004 |title=Pterosaur embryo from the Early Cretaceous |journal=Nature |volume=429 |pages=623 |doi=10.1038/429621a] While the scientists who initially described the fossil, Wang and Zhou, interpreted it as an unhatched embryo of an ornithocheirid pterosaur, Peters interpreted the find as a tiny, adult anurognathid.cite journal |last=Peters |first=David |year=2004 |title=Did pterosaurs lay eggs? |journal=Prehistoric Times |volume=67 |pages=21 |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20050211215207/http://pterosaurinfo.com/avgodectes.html] The specimen comes from the Early Cretaceous of China.

Peters gave the species its name because the skeleton was the same size as most adult anurognathids. He hypothesized that the supposed embryo could have been an adult anurognathid fossilized while eating the contents of a dinosaur egg, large enough to contain it. This interpretation was not accepted by other pterosaur researchers; Chris Bennett, for example, pointed to evidence also noted by the original authors that the ends of long bones in the fossil were not completely ossified (turned to solid bone rather than cartilage) and had not yet developed a complex structure, which indicates the specimen was immature when it died. Bennett agreed with the original authors that the best interpretation of an immature pterosaur (more immature than any previously known) found inside an egg is that the specimen represents an embryo.cite journal |last=Bennett |first=S. Christopher |year=2005 |title=Pterosaur Science or Pterosaur Fantasy |journal=Prehistoric Times |volume=70 |pages=21–23, 40 |url=http://www.fhsu.edu/biology/cbennett/Bennett-PT-article.pdf |format=pdf ] Peters himself acknowledged his misinterpretation when other pterosaur eggs were described in 2005.cite journal |last=Peters |first=David |year=2005 |title=Pterosaur Ptrouble. |journal=Prehistoric Times |volume=72 |pages=44–47)] This second Chinese eggcite journal |last=Ji |first=Q |year=2004 |title=Pterosaur egg with a leathery shell |journal=Nature |volume=432 |pages=572 |doi=10.1038/432572a] is that of an undisputed ornithocheirid and it differs from the "Avgodectes" material.

References