Monday 24 November 2014

Avatar in fossil form

A new pterosaur find has just been published and named Ikrandraco avatar.  The creature has a long skull with teeth and a sturdy lower mandibular keel.  Two specimens have been found and the paratype IVPP V.18406 is illustrated.  The holotype IVPP V.18199 is a more complete specimen, but the skull preservation is overlaid by other bones.

Wang X., Rodrigues T., Jiang S., Cheng X. and Kellner A. W. A., 2014, An Early Cretaceous pterosaur with an unusual mandibular crest from China and a potential novel feeding strategy. Scientific Reports, 4/6329, doi:10.1038/srep06329
The name "Ikran" and "avatar" were chosen as the fossil skull shows similarities with the head shape of the fictional Ikran (mountain Banshee) from the science fiction film Avatar.

http://www.avatarmovie.com/index.html