Muzquizopteryx is a genus of nyctosaurid pterodactyloid pterosaurs that originated in what is now Coahuila, Mexico, during the Late Cretaceous era (early Coniacian stage).
Discovery and Naming
A worker in El Rosario's chalk quarry, José Martínez Vásquez, discovered a pterosaur's skeleton in the 1990s. He gave this to a quarry official, who had it bricked in as a decorative element on the wall of an office. The Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México purchased the specimen in 2002 following the recognition of its exceptional scientific worth. It was then examined by a team from the Desert Museum and the University of Karlsruhe, and the results were published in a scholarly journal in 2004. Muzquizopteryx coahuilensis is the type species that Eberhard Frey, Marie-Céline Buchy, Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, Arturo González-González, and Alfredo di Stefano named and described in 2006. The generic name is a combination of the Greek word πτέρυξ, pteryx, meaning "wing," and the Múzquiz district. The state of Coahuila is the source of the particular name. Muzquizopteryx is based on the holotype UNAM IGM 8621, which is found in the early Coniacian-aged El Rosario strata of rocks. The fossilized tendons that run the length of both lower arms' sides are among the soft tissue remnants found within an almost entirely articulated skeleton. An mature person is portrayed by the specimen. A second specimen, MUDE CPC-494, was said to have been found in 2012, perhaps at the same location, by a quarry worker. It was then sold to a private collector. Afterwards, the Museo del Desierto Saltillo bought it. It is made up of a subadult individual's right upper wing, which is around 81% of the holotype's length. It was called a Muzquizopteryx sp. because of its meager remnants and perhaps somewhat older strata from the late Turonian.
Description
With a wingspan of around two meters (6.6 feet), Muzquizopteryx was a pterodactyloid pterosaur that was comparatively tiny. Its head was elongated and had a convex top profile, terminating in a small, rounded crest that pointed backward. The jaws lacked teeth. Strong wing musculature was evident from the arms' huge, hatchet-shaped deltopectoral crest on the humerus. The flying membrane was supported by the long, pteroid bone, which directed in the direction of the neck.
Classification
The authors of Muzquizopteryx classified it within the Nyctosauridae family. Then, it would be the tiniest and oldest member of the group—indeed, until 2006, the smallest adult Late Cretaceous pterosaur ever found. Because Nyctosaurus is occasionally placed in the Pteranodontidae, Muzquizopteryx may also be regarded in some classifications as a member of that family. The phylogenetic study findings are displayed in the cladogram below, which was updated with new data by Longrich and colleagues in 2018 after it was initially reported by Andres and colleagues in 2014. Muzquizopteryx was discovered in the Nyctosauridae family.
| Ornithocheiroidea |
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Reconstruction of Muzquizopteryx by Karkemish.
Muzquizopteryx skeleton taken by Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata.
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