Wikipedia:Today's featured article/November 24, 2022

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Life restoration showing Phosphatodraco in terrestrial pose
Life restoration showing Phosphatodraco in terrestrial pose

Phosphatodraco is a genus of azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Morocco. In 2000, a pterosaur specimen consisting of five neck vertebrae was discovered in the Ouled Abdoun phosphatic basin. The specimen was made the holotype of the new genus and species Phosphatodraco mauritanicus in 2003. It is one of the last known pterosaurs, and its neck is one of the best preserved among the azhdarchids. Due to the fragmentary nature of the holotype vertebrae, it is unclear how Phosphatodraco is distinguished from other azhdarchids and how large it was: it may have had a wingspan of either 4 m (13 ft) or 5 m (16 ft). Its neck may have been 865 mm (2 ft 10 in) long. It would have had a proportionally long neck, small body, and long limbs, compared to other pterosaurs. The diversity in pterosaur taxa in the Ouled Abdoun Basin, including Phosphatodraco, right before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event suggests the extinction of pterosaurs happened abruptly. (Full article...)

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